


It's a Weird New World

by Rhino (RhinoMouse), RhinoMouse



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: BAMF Skye | Daisy Johnson, Daisy is OP as Hell, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hotch Does Not Deserve This, Humor, Morgan and Emily are Protectors of the Team, Multi, Night Night Guns Change How Unsubs Get Taken Down, Once a Spy Always a Spy, Paintball as Therapy, Pre-Battle of New York, Protective Skye | Daisy Johnson, SHIELD is Insane, Standard BAU Levels of Violence, The BAU is not ready for aliens, Therapy, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:14:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 51,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27946634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhinoMouse/pseuds/Rhino, https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhinoMouse/pseuds/RhinoMouse
Summary: The BAU has a new agent assigned to them against their wishes. After-all they don't need a new agent, especially one with a file so classified they can't see anything but the agent's name in it. But Strauss's orders are Strauss's orders. It would help if this Daisy would stop taking stupid risks and acting like she's bored. Of course Daisy really is bored and isn't exactly allowed to mention that after fighting aliens, Inhumans, and Hydra, dealing with regular serial killers is kind of low stakes.
Relationships: Jennifer "JJ" Jareau/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 546
Kudos: 795





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was convinced to post this one. Hope ya'll like it.

It was not a good couple of days for Hotch, in fact this was one of the worst days of his career. His technical analyst Garcia had been shot. Turns out she’d been trying to use FBI privilege to keep cold cases active and stumbled on a serial killer. A serial killer who was also a cop. And who was in the FBI offices, standing in Hotch’s bullpen, bullying the IA technical analyst to do something that he thought would protect him. Considering the profile this unsub was going to go down shooting.

Hotch grimaced as he saw the worst possible added element to an already horrible situation. If only they’d had a few more minutes to surround him without tipping the unsub off. But no, a civilian had just walked into the bullpen. Officer Colby, serial killer, and unstable human stick of dynamite was starting to get jumpy and a civilian was walking past him. 

Colby grabbed the girl, raising his gun as he opened his mouth to speak. 

“Seriously?” The civilian girl rolled her eyes. Then grabbed Colby’s arm twisting it sharply so the gun aimed at the ceiling. “Well, less boring.” She shrugged like a murderer wasn’t behind her trying to use her as a hostage. She moved then, it was fast. So fast Hotch could barely track it. 

Colby went flying over her head, the girl twisted and then it was over. Colby’s gun was in her hand and pressed to the back Colby’s head. The girl had a knee shoved into Colby’s back, his gun arm twisted back behind him, and looked completely unruffled. She looked up at them. “He’s a bad guy right? Or is this some sort of hazing thing?” 

“FUC--Ow-ow-ow-ow.” Colby yelped. 

She sighed dispassionately as if she hadn’t just applied a lot of pressure to his wrist when he’d tried to swear. “So, does someone have handcuffs?” 

“Oh thank god.” The techy fluttered backward. 

Rossi stepped forward, pulling out his handcuffs. “That was quite the takedown.” 

The girl clipped the cuffs on while shoving the gun into the back of her pants. It was all practiced motions before she hopped up, Colby handcuffed and laying on the ground. 

Hotch eyed the new threat as Rossi packed off Colby. He stepped forward offering his hand. “Thank you, you just saved a lot of lives.” 

“Not my best work.” The girl had a strong grip as she shook his hand. “My name’s Daisy Coulson by the way, and I’m pretty sure I’m your new team member.” 

“You have a civilian guest pass.” Hotch was tense as he re-evaluated Daisy. She looked civilian at first glance, but then at second glance? The graze scar across her right cheek said combat, outfit of jeans, green turtleneck sweater, and black leather jacket were all sized so that despite being civilian gear they wouldn’t limit her movement at all. But her eyes? Her eyes said soldier. 

She smiled with a lazy ease. “Well I don’t have a fancy FBI badge, but I do have one of these.” Daisy pulled at a chain that had been hiding under her sweater, and then brandished a CIA shield. “Sorry about how shiny it is, kinda blew up my last one.” 

“I haven’t been notified of any changes to my team.” Aaron’s mouth tightened. One of his agents had just been shot, and now someone was muscling in on his team? No.

Daisy snickered. “Agent dude, I am the notification. Your uh...section chief should be coming down to brief you anytime now. Really I’m just here cause I got bored of waiting. But if you get killer cops in your offices I gotta say this assignment might not be as awful as I was thinking.” 

“Excuse me?” He was going to send this spook back to wherever she came from so fast. “Thank you for your assistance today Agent Coulson, but there’s been a mistake. You’re not being assigned to my team.” 

“Agent Hotchner.” Straus’s voice cut through the general chaos of bullpen post killer cop arrest. 

His teeth clenched. But he still turned to face her. “Can I help you ma’am?” 

“Yes, your office.” Her cold gaze moved to Agent Coulson. “You sit.” 

Agent Coulson popped a gum bubble while dropping into Morgan’s chair and spinning. “Got it boss lady.” 

Hotch’s jaw tightened, but he followed Straus into his office. As soon as the door clicked shut he turned on his heel. “Garcia was just shot. I don’t know what you’re trying to do but I won’t stand for it. We had an understanding.” 

“It’s not my decision.” Straus looked out the window, unease in her tight shoulders. 

He paused, frowning at the tells he was seeing. Straus was nervous. “What’s going on here?” 

“I got a call from the Assistant Director this morning. This decision is out of my hands, it's from way up the food chain Aaron.” Straus moved away from the window. “Agent Coulson’s file is so classified I don’t even have access to much more than you do. But I was told I had to find a team for her, and you’re it.” 

He narrowed his eyes. “Why us?” 

“Because she’s a specialist, which is a fancy way of saying assassin for our government. Wet work, torture, the things we don’t officially know about.” Straus’s fingers flicked with distaste. “What I know is that she was undercover and was burned. Whatever happened it was bad, she can’t go back to her old work. So she was given to the Assistant Director who gave her to me and I’m giving her to you.” 

Hotch pushed the fury down. “And you’re putting her on my team. Why?” 

“Her psych eval. One of the few things that wasn’t classified to hell and back.” Straus brandished a folder. 

Hotch flipped it open. His eyes flicked through, picking up key words. But he could see why immediately. ‘Agent is highly protective’, ‘obsessively loyal’, ‘isolation should be avoided’, ‘does not respect authority’, ‘works well with junior agents’, ‘unsuited for civilian life’. He looked up at Straus. “You want her to protect the team.” 

“You have to admit the last year has been hard on your team. Just yesterday Garcia was shot! The two by four to the head Prentiss took in Milwaki? Gideon? And frankly I wouldn’t put someone this dangerous on just any team. At least if she starts to be a threat you’ll be able to spot it.” Straus sounded disgusted. “She had to go somewhere.” 

Hotch closed his eyes briefly. It made sense. But an assassin being assigned as essentially a bodyguard to the team was...it was disturbing. He didn’t want it. But even he could read the writing on the wall. This was happening. He glared at Straus. “And if I say she’s dangerous?” 

“I suspend her, stick her in therapy and we hope the CIA comes and picks up their asset.” She pulled out a very thick file and dropped it into his hands. “For all the good it’ll do you.” 

He glanced down at it. “What is this?” 

“Her file. Her name is the only thing not blacked out in it.” Straus straightened her shoulders before looking at him over her shoulder. “Go take care of Garcia, maybe with Agent Coulson on the team you won’t have this happen again.” 

He gave a stiff nod as she left his office. Hotch opened the massive file. Well...that was...useless. Every god forsaken line in the thing was blacked out. He looked back out the window. Agent Coulson had put headphones on and was using two pencils to play drums on the files on Morgan’s desk. 

Fuck. 

////

“We have a new member to the team.” Hotch opened up the conference he’d called that morning. “First though, are you even allowed out of the hospital Garcia?” 

She held onto her fluffy pen defensively. “I’m not in the field, and missing a newbie? No way.” 

“She’s not a newbie.” Hotch kept his voice even, but it was important that the team took this part seriously. “Our new team member is a former CIA specialist. Agent Daisy Coulson, her cover was blown and is being assigned to us temporarily. She’s been assigned to us for our own protection.” 

Morgan looked up from where he was slouched in his chair. “We can take care of ourselves Hotch.” 

“Can we?” Aaron looked at Garcia for a pointed moment. “She’s not a profiler, but she could be helpful. And frankly this assignment comes from the Assistant Director himself.” 

Emily leaned forward, folding her hands on the table. “What type of specialist?” 

“The type that can’t reintegrate back into civilian life.” He saw the understanding on the team’s faces. “I want all of you to be careful, but she is one of ours and should be treated accordingly.” 

“Yes sir.” Emily nodded. “So when does she get here?” 

////

JJ set down the phone. Pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes she breathed in and then out. 

“You ok?” Agent Coulson asked from the doorway. 

She startled, looking up. “How’d you…” 

“Ninja skills.” Coulson wiggled her fingers. “Sorry for scaring you.”

She slowly calmed leaning back in her seat. “Right, still not used to that.” 

“It’s cool, took me a while to get used to it when I first got recruited.” Coulson shrugged. “So do you need help with anything? Cause like I’m not much use with the profile stuff the rest of the team is doing.” 

She paused and then considered it. “Sure, uh yes you could help me work through these. Sort them into cases by number of victims and notate the ones that stand out as escalating, developed methodology that sort of thing?” 

“I can do that.” Coulson left the door open while peering at the horrific piles of paperwork on JJ’s desk. “So uh...where do you want me to start?” 

JJ started to push a stack of new cases towards their new team member only to pause. “Some of the images are pretty graphic…” 

“I’ve seen worse.” Coulson hefted the stack up. She stepped towards the door. “You know you shouldn’t feel guilty for being scared of me. Most people are.” 

JJ stood. “It’s not like that. You’re just new and… I’m sorry.” 

“It’s cool.” Coulson shrugged. “Not sure how long I’ll be here anyways. Although if you wouldn’t mind passing it around, I prefer Daisy to Coulson. Agent Coulson was my dad.” 

JJ gestured to the slightly uncomfortable lounge and coffee table in her office. “You can always work here if you want. Daisy.” 

“Well, I’m partial to pizza if we end up ordering in.” Daisy’s lips twitched up slightly as she moved back into the room and dropped the stack onto the small rickety old table. 

JJ glanced over her latest case file. She found their newest team member a bit of an enigma. Daisy was wearing elbow length fingerless gloves made of some sort of sport material. But the soft sweater over them, and loose jeans aided in softening her already young features. Late twenties maybe? Her hair was braided back. 

Actually...JJ frowned. “What’s that?” 

“Huh?” Daisy looked up at her. 

She gestured to the side of her neck where she could see a large corresponding scar on Daisy’s neck. “That looks like it hurt.” 

“It did.” Daisy went back to where she was flipping through a file of her own. “Supes classified though.” She looked over at JJ’s desk. “So how long am I going to be getting the cold shoulder from Morgan? Cause I get it from Hotch and Rossi. I kinda got shoved onto them, and I don’t play well with authority figures. But Morgan seems a bit bent out of shape.” 

“Ah, well Morgan…. It’s been hard on all of us with Garcia being shot. It’ll just take time.” JJ didn’t trust this woman, but she was starting to get the feeling that she was a good person. 

Daisy grabbed a slice of pizza. “You know I didn’t know how amazing pizza was till I had to eat field rations.” She closed her eyes with hum as she took a bite. “God it’s so good.” 

“More of a Chinese person myself.” JJ picked up her next file. “So if you weren’t helping me, what would you be doing?” 

Daisy hummed as she set her pizza to the side. “Chinese take out next time then. And hmm…. Depends, have been helping out my old team with a bit of hacking. And I’ve been learning Mandarin.”

“Mandarin?” She asked curiously. 

Daisy nodded absently as she flipped through a file without so much as flinching. “My SO spoke it and honestly the only speaking English and a little bit of Russian thing was irritating. I’m not sure why, but learning more things is always something to do.” 

“Not going to learn how to profile? Work with the team properly.” JJ knew the others were worried about the danger Daisy likely posed. But she was fairly sure Daisy wasn’t dangerous, at least to the team.

Daisy shrugged. “I don’t need to understand the bad guys to catch them.” 

“Do you even want to be on this team?” JJ frowned, that wasn’t right for someone who didn’t want to deal with the darkness and depravity they handled if they didn’t have the drive for it. 

Daisy’s whole face shuddered closed. “No.” And then she was smiling again. “But hey, it was this or retirement.” 

“Surely there are other departments?” JJ felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. 

Daisy unfolded her legs out from under her, shoes touching the ground for the first time in hours. “It’s classified, but there really isn’t.” Daisy looked up at her sharply. “You should be careful. They have a saying, where I go death follows.” Standing up, Daisy set down her file and gave her a sharp nod before leaving without another word. 

////

Reid stepped forward and held out a coffee on Coulson’s desk. “I wasn’t sure if you liked coffee. But getting you tea seemed reductive and racist if it was green. But I’ve seen your Captain America coffee mug which led me to the conclusion you may drink coffee. So I got you some. But then I wasn’t sure what you might like in your coffee.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets desperately dumping the sugar and creamers he’d grabbed onto her desk. They spilled across the surface in a mess. “Sorry, but I thought I should be prepared. Hopefully you like it.” 

Coulson’s lips turned up as she picked up the coffee. “Thank you, it’s very sweet of you.” She seemed to wait for him to say something else. 

“Do you like coffee? Or maybe tea? I can go get you tea if you prefer, I should have just gotten you tea and coffee, but then green or black tea? Or maybe herbal. Coffee was the statistically most likely beverage of choice.” 

Coulson laughed and it was light and happy. “I like coffee, but green tea is nice sometimes too.” 

“Are you...going to drink it?” He asked cautiously. 

Morgan called him from his desk. “Come on kid, leave the newbie alone.” 

“I don’t drink or eat things I haven’t prepared or seen prepared.” Coulson stood up, but touched his shoulder. “It’s cute you tried though. Thank you, really.” She winked at him.

He blinked. “Oh...why are you holding the coffee then?” 

“Because I know JJ likes coffee and you three already all have your own. Don’t worry, I’ll let her know it’s from you.” She idly scooped up the creamers and sugars and stuffed them into her own pockets. 

Reid paused, he needed to say something or for a third day in a row she’d just disappear on them. “Did you know coffee is the second largest internationally traded commodity?” 

“I’m pretty sure the FBI does it’s fair share in encouraging that.” Coulson snickered. “The fuel of the workaholic and all that.” She cocked a hip looking at him curiously. “Hit me with another coffee fact.” 

Reid’s fingers twitched, people didn’t want more facts if it didn’t pertain to a case. “You uh… want to know more about coffee.” He perked up as a fact popped through the haze of confusion. “In 1511 it was banned in Mecca because it was believed to stimulate radical thinking.” 

She giggled at that. “Not wrong. Fitz was slipped a couple doctored caffeine pills, and well, the rest is classified.” There was a distinct impression of amusement to her. Whatever had happened was likely humorous. 

He cocked his head to the side slightly. “Is this why you don’t drink coffee you don’t make yourself?” 

“Hazing ritual for newbies at the Agency.” Coulson shrugged. “But I should get this coffee to JJ before it goes cold.” And with that she slipped up the stairs. 

Reid raised a hand. “Well uh bye then…” He groaned and pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Don’t take it personally kid.” Morgan slapped him on the back. “But there’s other fish in the sea and she’s a shark.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “She’s at least trying. You should give her some slack.” 

“She’s an unsub employed by us, instead of wandering the streets. People like that, especially the ones the government doesn’t trust without a team of profilers keeping an eye on are dangerous.” Morgan took a swig of his coffee. “We’re better off without her.” 

“That’s not fair.” Emily glared at Morgan. “I’ll give you that she’s dangerous, but she’s not a psychopath. She’s traumatized, not a threat.” 

The tendons in Morgan’s neck tightened. “Trauma triggers people like her.” 

“For her work to be so classified none of us know anything means she’s saved lives. We both know spook work chews up good people and spits out the survivors.” She sharply grabbed a new police file and opened it up. “Despite which she’s trying more than you, and that’s just sad.” 

“Who’s side are you on?” Morgan turned fully facing Emily. 

She didn’t back down. “There’s no sides Morgan.” 

Reid winced. “Can we not fight?” 

“Yeah, sorry kid.” Morgan slapped him on the back again. “She just rubs me wrong.” 

Emily scoffed, though her posture softened. “Oh, issues with women who can kick your ass Morgan?” 

“Oh shut up.” Morgan chuckled while rolling his eyes. 

Reid relaxed. He settled back behind his desk and opened up a police file. This made so much more sense to him. 

////

Emily didn’t watch the presentation on the new case they were shipping out for. She’d get caught up on the plane. Instead she watched Coulson, or she supposed they should be calling her Daisy. The images of gangbangers ripped to shreds hadn’t elicited more than a slight rise of her eyebrows. She stayed comfortable, never faltering in her lazy gum chewing. 

She was interested by what she saw of the new team member. On their way to the plane she noted Daisy was far more at ease the closer to the plane they got. “You travel a lot with your old team?” 

“You could say that.” Daisy took in the lines of their plane. “Gotta say, I haven’t been on a plane that didn’t have parachutes, weapons, and well more than a bar with little hotel bottles of vodka.” 

Emily laughed at the vaguely disconcerted expression on Daisy’s face. “This is my first assignment with a plane. And your last plane assignment sounds significantly more exciting than my last assignment.” 

Daisy looked at her curiously. “I don’t know, your last assignment read as pretty exciting.” 

She froze. “You…” Emily grabbed Daisy’s arm pulling her aside, ignoring the looks the team was giving them. “You read the reports.” It wasn’t a question. 

“I was curious why you were being nice.” Daisy gave her a slight nod. “I won’t mention it.” 

Emily wanted to panic, but tamped it down. CIA spooks knew how to keep their mouths shut about Interpool missions. “Just me? Or are you researching all of us?” 

“I mean I did some basic research on all of you. Bad habits.” She held up her hands and wiggled her fingers. “You were an anomaly on the team.” 

She dropped her arm and forced herself to relax. “You don’t want to be on this team, why bother researching us at all?” 

“I like to know who I’m working with.” Daisy’s face turned oddly serious. “I can protect this team from the demons you all have collected. Even yours Prentiss. Even once I’m off your team you can call. People like your demons shouldn't be walking around."

Emily took in the woman in front of her’s body language and the iron in her face. Well then. She hadn’t seen more than the brief take down of the man who’d shot Garcia. But she gave Daisy a sharp nod, this woman was more than capable of following through with her promise. “If you need help, let me know.” 

“Best way to cause Hotch to have an aneurysm and get kicked off the team?” Daisy grinned. 

She snorted as she made her way to a seat in the plane. 

////

Rossi sipped at his coffee, holding in his amusement at the ever increasing eye twitch Hotch was developing. As the newest member of the BAU, he was learning a lot about his team from watching this newest development. It was funny really how predictable they were.

Reid was trying to make a connection. It was one part his reaction to a pretty girl, one part curiosity, and one part floundering at the change in mood since Coulson had arrived. Altogether it was amusing enough, and Coulson was handling him well. Morgan on the other hand was all bristling. He was used to being the protector of the team, give it some time and he’d settle. JJ and Garcia were both cautiously curious. But Hotch? Hotch was losing his control and his well oiled machine of a team’s dynamics were shifting. There was some similarity to Morgan, Hotch was clearly worried about the stability of their newest member. 

“Rossi, what do you think?” Morgan asked from where he was settled in the plane. 

He considered the crime scene photos. “Psychotic break. A lot of rage.” 

“He’s escalating, and no sexual component. Hasn’t started to devolve yet, but in this type of situation it’ll be inevitable.” Prentiss flipped to a different page. “What is he using? It’s a type of knife but…” 

Coulson spoke up. “Two swords, curved ends but sharp points.” She flipped to a new page of her comic book. Hotch twitched. 

“Can you confirm that?” Reid looked at her curiously. 

Coulson looked over her book. “I’ve dealt with a few, that’s what it looks like. Haven’t used one.. Did use this one like european broadsword once though.” She glanced at the photos, her nose scrunched up. “At least he’s not ripping them apart with his hands.” 

Rossi knew the distraction that was about to happen. He cut in before it could happen. “So our unsub has two swords. Does that narrow down our profile?” 

Rossi dialed the office, his eyes tracking the guy he’d just dealt with.

-”Penelope Garcia, Oracle of all things.”-

He huffed. “I need you to run a name for me, just see if he pops up. Could be nothing, but add him to the list. Name’s Johnny McHale.” 

-“The graphic novelist? Oh no, I love his work.”-

Rossi frowned. “Artist...it’s probably nothing. Just keep his name to the side in case he’s connected to any of this.” 

////

Morgan stayed silent as JJ said “Sometimes what the unsub does actually makes sense.” 

He looked back at the evidence. The sick feeling in his gut deepened. This one was hard, unsub was just a guy who had been through trauma and it broke him. “She’s right, I get why this guy did it.” 

“You know in cases of trauma from violent crime-” Reid started on a tangent that would undoubtedly include numbers.

“Nah uh.” Morgan held up his hand. “Let’s just get through this so we can find our dirtbag and go home.” 

It was a relief to have the location. He unholstered his gun, the familiar presence of Prentiss at his back. “Let’s do this.” He paused, seeing Coulson leaning against the side of the SUV, no bulletproof vest, totally at ease. “You coming in with?” 

“No, I’ll be in the back. If you run into any trouble I’ll be here.” Daisy frowned slightly.

Prentiss unholstered her gun. “We don’t have time to waste, come on.”

He gave a sharp nod and moved in.

Morgan walked towards where Coulson was eating red vines and reading comics. “So are you a part of this team or not?” 

“What do you mean?” She looked up at him, her face may be cocky but he could see how dead she was behind that. 

He dropped his hands to his hips. “I don’t see what you bring to this team. You help JJ with her paperwork? What else? Cause from where I’m standing you don’t have our backs.” 

“Look this isn’t what I do.” Coulson ‘s eyes flicked back to the comic or graphic novel or whatever it was. 

He pressed his tongue into his lower lip. “What, you go in, do the job and get things done. None of this team shit?” 

Her entire body froze. She looked back up. “What did you just say?” 

“You’re the whole solution. It’s what you’re trained for right?” Morgan slowed as he took in her body language. 

Coulson practically tossed her comic aside and stood up. “That’s not me.” Her fingers flexed. “I protect the team, I handle the threats.” 

“Where is your team? Clearly you can hack, why aren’t you running surveillance or something for your team?” Morgan could feel the rest of the plane, he had moments before the situation was de-escalated. 

Coulson’s jaw tightened. “Because-” She cut herself off before breathing in. “You’re right, I don’t want to be here. I want to be with my team flushing out nazi scum. But I made too big of a scene taking out one of their bases three months ago. So I’m stuck here. And I’ll protect your backs while I’m here.”

“You’re trying not to get attached.” Morgan relaxed, his arms falling from his waist as the horrible off feeling clicked into place. “That’s why the fake behavior.” 

She paused and then rolled her eyes. “Like it doesn’t have anything to do with you not trusting I have your back.” Coulson seemed to consider him. “When we get back, after you help Garcia, cause it doesn’t take a profiler to know you’re itching to get back to her, I’ll meet you in the gym and we’ll see if you can get a hit in.” 

He chuckled at that. “Alright, we can see what you have.” 

Mogan bounced on his toes, watching as Daisy stretched out her left shoulder before stepping up onto the mats. “So rules?” 

“No breaking anything.” Daisy shrugged. “No causing unconsciousness?” 

He paused. “Your rules include no horrific injury or asphyxiation? You do know what tapping out is right?” 

“Of course.” Daisy dropped into a stance. “And we mostly just avoided injury worse than some bruising and the occasional broken finger.” 

Morgan considered that. “I can work with that.” 

She gave a sharp nod and bumped her fists into his in the generally accepted signal of starting. 

He started to punch only for her duck under it. And then slam her knee into his diaphragm. As he naturally bent in half from that, her elbows both came down hard on his back, two inches from where they’d have snapped his neck. Morgan barely registered this as his feet were swept out from under him, a hand caught him by the throat, and slammed him into the mats. 

Morgan stared at the lights as he struggled to breathe. His left hand tapping on the mat. If that had been for real he’d have died. Wheezing he looked up at Daisy’s face. It was slightly bored and mostly amused. He got out a low. ‘Fuck.’ But then she held her hand out to help him up. 

He took the hand.

Morgan wheezed as he stared at the gym ceiling, again. Rolling over he pushed himself back up to his feet. “Ok what are you a ninja?” She’d been restraining herself to not almost killing him for the last couple rounds.

“I’m a specialist.” Daisy’s face was alight with humor that reached her eyes properly now.

He shook his head before raising his fists. He threw a sharp jab.

She slapped it aside, and then he was on the ground again. 

Morgan grunted. He pushed up on his elbows. “What was that?” 

“You trust your strength too much.” Daisy held out her hand.

He nodded and accepted the hand. “You pack quite the punch.” 

“Want to go another round?” She grinned. 

Morgan rolled his shoulders. “Maybe give me a half a chance?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I'm just going to do daily updates with this one since it's already completely written. But know that this means if something happens in my real life it might mean an update getting delayed. So you know, daily with a chance for interruption.

Daisy poured herself a bowl of grape nuts. “Why do I eat this stuff?” 

-”Because you need a balanced diet to stay healthy. So how’s the new team?”- Jemma’s voice was far too perky.

She rolled her eyes while reaching for the milk. “I don’t know how to be an agent. Couldn’t they have put me in terrorism or something?”

-”We need you close to the Triskelion and New York in case you’re needed. And Hydra doesn’t care about serial killers, and neither does teen you.”- Jemma made that sigh of hers when she was mildly frustrated with someone being obstinate. 

Daisy hummed as she stirred her hot chocolate. “I get it, the others are working with Fury to root out the remains of Hydra. I just don’t know what I’m doing here Jemma. Serial killers are just… I’m not useful.”

-”Of course you are, you’re a very talented agent. Maybe help your tech specialist? And you’ve always been good at guessing what the bad guys are going to do. You’ll do great.”- There was the sound of a kettle whistling briefly. 

She sipped her hot chocolate. “I don’t know how not to be an agent of SHIELD. Being an FBI agent is just weird.”

-”You need friends, maybe you could meet someone nice. We can’t time travel again, too many paradoxes already. This timeline is our final one. Maybe put up a dating profile or something.”- 

Daisy rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to find my Fitz on a website. And what happens when the other me gets to be a SHIELD agent? It’ll be too weird. I don’t think using Coulson instead of Johnson so Skye can have our name is going to keep it from being super weird.” 

-“You could stay there, pop out for Avenger level threats. I mean, do you want to go back to SHIELD missions after this? Frankly I’m tired of the kidnappings, nearly dying, space travel, alternate realities, killer AIs and fear dimensions. Fitz and I are talking about staying out here, maybe some teaching and safe research. Of course running the New Afterlife could be lovely and a bit slower than we’re used to.”-

She finished chewing her bite of cereal. “The only thing I’ve been, other than an agent, is a teenage cyber terrorist Jemma.”

-”Well maybe this is your chance to be something new. We saved the world, again and again. A better future is here for everyone else now. We get to have roots. Maybe in a few years you’ll be an aunt.”-

“You’re thinking of having little genius babies?” Daisy perked up. She missed her friends.

There was a smile audible in Jemma's voice. -”You’ll be the godmother and try to tempt my kid into your bad girl shenanigans.”-

“Sounds nice.” Daisy lowered her spoon. “Any word from May?”

-”No, but as soon as she’s sure Hydra is down and Coulson is on track for being director she’s retiring with LMD Coulson, so she doesn’t exactly contact us. She’s busy.”-

Daisy flinched. “If I hadn't quaked that Hydra base I could still be helping her.” 

-”You did the right thing, you got Pierce and Whitehall. That base had over three hundred Hydra operatives and we couldn’t afford for any of them to make it out and warn what’s left of them. It was the right call. You did the right thing, now you get a stable team. This could be a good thing if you let it.”-

She dug her spoon into her cereal. “So what new science mambo jumbo you working on?” 

‘“A field method to stop bleeding long enough for the agent to be brought in for medical testing. It’s sort of a greenish foam? But really it’s fascinating because--”-

Daisy dropped down onto her desk. Pulling her legs up she opened up her computer. “So how do you know which cases need you personally and not just a profile?” 

“Escalation, short cooling off period, number of victims, signs of a psychotic break, level of violence, signs that the locals are unable to catch the unsub.” Morgan rolled back in his chair. “You wanna be a profiler and a ninja now?” 

She let her head tilt. “You have enough profilers, you don’t need another one.” 

“I mean JJ’s been getting out of the office on time since you got here. So you gotta be doing something right.” He stood grabbing his empty coffee mug. “Trust me to get you a refill of coffee?” 

Daisy grinned. “Nope.” She picked up her mug and sipped. “Besides, it’s tea.”

“How’d you find your unsubs when you were off doing CIA missions?” Morgan asked as he swiped Emily’s mug. 

She pulled up the SHIELD chatter, she’d been combing through it to find any Hydra goons that might have been missed. “Point, we follow the evidence and try to predict the enemies next move. I miss the resources. Like the Night Night guns.” Daisy snickered at all of the signs of disbelief. “Laugh now, but those were the most advanced tranquilizer rounds.”

“I thought you were a wet work agent, why the tranquilizers?” Emily looked up curiously, and vaguely surprised. 

Daisy paused, she opened and then closed her mouth. “I mean, I technically have the body count, I can see the mistake…. How did you guys even get that idea? Like my file is totes blacked out.” 

“Your name was the only thing not blacked out in your file, which is a massive file, CIA, not able to integrate with civilian life. It was the logical assumption.” Reid blinked from behind his glasses. 

She snorted. “I mean, your file gets that big from command, and eight years of service. Also my recruitment has to be like a chunk of that.” Daisy hopped off her desk. “And that’s classified. I also may have added some My Little Pony fanfiction to my file since it was being blacked out anyways. It amuses me.” 

“Nuh uh.” Morgan cut off before Reid could ask anything else. “You’re just playing with us. You going to microwave your tea or keep teasing us with classified?” 

Daisy blanched, pressing a hand against her chest. “Microwave tea? My SO might just teleport here to kick me.” 

“Teleporting isn’t possible, but there’s some quantum teleportation research that sounds promising.” Reid perked up, the familiar excitement of the nerd herd. 

Daisy smiled. “You think it will be like Star Trek?” 

“Theoretically-”

“We’ve got a case,” JJ announced from the catwalk before going into Hotch’s office. 

Daisy looked up. She considered that. Well, this time she could help out. Really help. If she was going to be part of this team for a while then she would participate. And there were some things she was uniquely suited for. She glanced at her outfit. Well going in as a potential victim was going to be fun. Actually, she was bored enough it probably would be. 

////

Emily felt a mix of pity and empathy for the old wreck that was John Colfield, the former sheriff. The way the man zeroed in on the photos of the old victim photos was tragic. The price of the job sometimes. She paused. “Where’s Daisy?” 

“I thought she went with Hotch?” Morgan looked at her.

Rossi’s face twitched. “We have a CIA agent disappear when she’s within the age range of victims. I don’t think that’s an accident.” 

“Do we need to rescue her from our unsub?” A Deputy asked, all alarmed diligence. 

Emily winced. “I think it’s more that we should hope she doesn’t find the unsub before us.” 

The former sheriff frowned. “What are you talking about?” 

////

Daisy whimpered and jingled her cuffs. Honestly, he was a shitty kidnapper. So dependent on being bigger, stronger, and the girls not being able to fight back properly. It probably helped a lot that thanks to her being inhuman and the centipede serum she’d burned through the drugs within ten minutes. 

The truck was jostling a lot, off-road then. She rolled her eyes under the burlap bag. Of course the fucker listened to bad country music. Daisy weakly pulled at her cuffs. This man was not smart. If there wasn’t a still living girl she needed to find, she’d have taken this man down ages ago. She let out a low moan, keeping the man sure he was in charge. 

Finally, finally, the car came to a halt. The drivers door banged open and then shut. 

She kicked weakly as he dragged her out of the passenger side floor. As she hit the ground with a thump she winced, that was going to bruise her ass. 

He hiked her up to her feet and half dragged her. Clearly a cave, the damp was telling. 

“HELLO! Help...oh god.” A female voice came from further down. 

Daisy closed her eyes, she ran enough vibration into her handcuffs to shatter them apart. 

“What was that whore?” The creep shook her, his grip on her upper arm tightening. 

She grinned, too bad he couldn’t see how fucked he was about to be. 

Daisy used her knuckles to punch him in the throat. 

He let out a wheezing choke of pain. 

She grabbed the back of his head and slammed him into the side of the cave. He crumpled.

Daisy pulled off the burlap sack. “Damn that thing stank.” She pulled her hair back and slipped the hairband off her wrist to keep her hair up. She reached into her bra and pulled out the zipties. Looking up she softened at the sight of the girl. “You’re Molly right?” 

“Yes?” The girl whimpered, her eyes flicking to the unsub.

She sighed. “I’m here to get you out.” Daisy snapped the zip ties around the man’s limp wrists and then grabbed his feet. “Alright, don’t worry, we’re going to secure him and then get you out.” 

“How, how’d you get out of that?” Molly shifted, moving away from the second set of chains. 

Daisy grunted as she hauled the man to the moldy mattress in one corner. She grabbed the chains and snapped him into them. She squatted in front of Molly. “Hey, can I touch your wrists so I can get those cuffs?” 

“Yeah, we gotta get out of here.” Molly practically thrust her wrists into Daisy’s hands.

She slid a lock pick out of the beat up sole of the sneakers she was wearing. It was easy enough to get to work. “You’re going to be ok. My name is Daisy Coulson and I work with the FBI. Do you think you can walk?” 

“Yeah, I can walk.” Molly shoved the chains away from her as soon as they came off. 

Daisy hopped up onto her feet. She gently helped the shaking teenager up, pulling the girl’s arm over her shoulders. “Lean on me, I’ll hotwire his truck and get us to the hospital.” 

////

JJ knocked on the hospital room door. She poked her head in and felt a weight fall off her shoulders at the sight of a living Molly. “May I come in?” 

Molly’s eyes widened, her shoulders tightening. 

“Hey, it’s cool. She’s with me,” Daisy spoke up and JJ almost had an aneurysm. Because sitting in a chair by the side of the bed, worn sneakers, old jeans, flannel and a tank top, hair cascading down in loose waves was Daisy. But she looked like some sort of local teenager. 

“Daisy?” JJ couldn’t help how her voice raised in surprise. 

She snickered. “Sup!” Daisy offered a redvine to Molly. “Hey, you need to eat and hospital food is the worst.” 

JJ slowly stepped into the room. “I’m here to take your statement.” 

“Ok.” Molly reached out grabbing Daisy’s hand. “Don’t go?” 

Daisy’s face was soft as she held Molly’s eye. “I won’t go anywhere till that taser I ordered for you gets here. And your parents.” 

“Thank you.” Molly pulled her knees up. She looked at JJ. “I..what do you need to know?” 

JJ sat slowly at the end of the bed. “We can go at whatever speed you need. And if you need to stop we take a break. There’s no time pressure.” And there wasn’t, Morgan and Prentiss were escorting one very sore and cold unsub to the station. 

Molly sniffled. “I was at the party...”

JJ tucked another heated blanket over Molly’s sleeping form. She gave the girl’s mom a nod, before slipping out of the room. As she closed the door behind her she looked to Daisy, who was slouched against the wall. “That was a terrible risk. Hotch is not happy.” 

“She’s alive, it was worth it.” Daisy shrugged. “Besides I wasn’t in any danger, a drunk hillbilly isn’t going to be what takes me down. I’ve been kidnapped by far, far worse. Believe me when I say I wasn’t in any danger.” 

She nodded slowly. “Let’s go, the team is waiting for us.” 

“Are you mad?” Daisy bounced off the wall and easily fell into step besides her. 

JJ stared at her, it was disturbing to see an agent looking like a sixteen year old, but yes she was mad. “You didn’t tell anyone. You went in without any backup.” 

“It’s what I can do.” Daisy stuffed her hands into her pockets. “You don’t need my computer skills, my combat skills, my working knowledge of several incredibly classified things, or well anything else I offer. That girl needed me.” 

“And if the unsub had just shot you?” JJ swallowed bile at the memories of the hacked bodies the man had left in his wake. “Why not tell us? Go in with a wire, gps, something in case it went wrong?” 

Daisy reached out catching her forearm. “I don’t think you understand really how much your serial killers don’t scare me.” She held JJ’s gaze. “I’ve broken into military bases and had to fight my way out. Been tortured and had to drag myself out despite it all, a single untrained civilian murderer is…” She vibrated. “I wasn’t in danger against this unsub. And if I was, I could have handled it.” 

“You…” JJ wasn’t a profiler, but even she knew that this was an agent who needed help. “You’re still going to get reamed by Hotch.” 

Daisy’s face dropped back to pleasant. “I can survive it.” 

JJ called Garcia.

-”Portal for knowledge of all things and glitter.”- 

“Garcia, I need you to do something for me.” JJ watched out of the corner of her eye as Hotch turned a new shade of red as he lectured Daisy. “Can you tell with Daisy’s file if she’s ever been to required therapy?” 

-”Gumdrop that’s a hard question. I’ve looked into her file and it’s all classified. But off the format of the files, there are a series of reports about two years into her record that vaguely look like psych evals. But I can’t tell you for sure.”- There was some distinct clicking. -”I did some digging, cause that’s what I do. And I can tell you is that there was one name associated with Daisy’s in the CIA info I have access to. Qiaolian May. Want me to keep digging?”-

JJ bit at her bottom lip. “How old is she? Because she said eight years of service and if she’s over twenty eight… There’s something really wrong about her record. We don’t just use and throw away our agents like that.” 

-”You think she needs help?”- Garcia sounded curious. 

She crossed her arm across herself. “She said she’d been tortured and had to drag herself out of there. You didn’t see her face, but I believe her. And I don’t think she meant to say it. After something like that you shouldn’t just be tossed into a new team in a new agency.” 

-”I’ll see what I can find, buttercup. Garcia out.”-

JJ slipped her phone back into her pocket. She walked to where the rest of the team was packing up, ready to leave. “We have to give Daisy things to do or she’ll do this again.” 

“You’re right.” Emily pushed some of her hair back. “And she’ll know if we try to give her something that’s not necessary.” 

Rossi picked up a pair of keys. “Give her some cold cases to go over for new insights. It’ll keep her busy enough she won’t just disappear on us again.” 

“I don’t know about all of you, but when we get back to DC I’m going to need a drink.” Emily pulled on her blazer. “If Daisy’s part of the team she should come.” 

“Thank you.” JJ eased, the others would help. They weren’t going to just let someone like Daisy spiral. Because after seeing their newest teammate with Molly she knew one thing. Daisy was good people.


	3. Chapter 3

Garcia froze as her screens started moving without her telling them to. “Oh no.” She pulled up the security, someone was hacking her. “No you don’t.” 

“Don’t worry about grabbing the power cord.” An amused voice came from the doorway. 

She squeaked, spinning in her chair. “Daisy?” 

“You tried to squeak into the CIA?” Daisy grinned as she bumped the door shut while waving her sticker covered laptop. “Which, I’m impressed. If you promise not to search for my files in there I’ll show you how to get in.” 

Garcia paused. “You know how to get in?” 

“My handle’s skyenet.” She grinned with the cocky confidence of being one of the best hackers in the world and knowing it. 

Garcia dropped her fluffy pen. “No way?” 

“Yours is The Black Queen. Which, your work was fabulous before you got caught.” She wiggled her eyebrows. 

“But Skyenet is currently one of the central hackers for The Rising Tide?” Garcia frowned, but skyenet’s hacks were legendary. 

Daisy winked. “You don’t exactly have to go undercover for hacking.” 

“Your spoofing technique you used against the Chinese was inspired!” Garcia vibrated. 

She grabbed the second rolly chair, and curled up in it. “So I show you how to get into the CIA, you stop looking into my highly classified past?” 

“You answer two questions and show me how to get in and I stop looking?” Garcia bargained. 

Daisy shrugged. “You can ask them and I might tell you if it won’t get you hurt to know. And I get to ask two back.” 

“Deal, no takes backs.” Garcia held out her hand. 

Daisy accepted her hand and shook it firmly. “So, why are you settling for mediocre tech guy Kevin?” 

“Oof, straight for the deep stuff.” She put her pen behind her ear. It took a few minutes to find the right words. “He gets my work, is cute, and likes me.” Garcia touched her gunshot wound. She knew not to trust strangers who were too hot. “Where’s the rest of your old team?” 

Daisy pulled out a pack of pink bubblegum and offered some. “Fitzsimmons are on their honeymoon and talking about getting out of the business, having a few kids. My SO and three others are reforming the agency and well Yo-yo has gotten really into roller derby for some reason.” She grinned as Garcia accepted the gum, it was the good kind. “Your turn, how do I get the team to stop digging into my past?”

Garcia chewed her new piece of gum thoughtfully. “Let them get to know you. But they’re profilers, and profilers are the most irritating people to be around if you want to keep a secret.” Garcia stared at the woman sitting across from her. “I think I’m gonna keep my second question for a better time.” 

“Oooo, scary.” Daisy wiggled her fingers. “So, how do you feel about some hacking?”

Garcia looked around her office. “We need some snacks.” 

////

Morgan flipped through his case file absently as he walked. “Hey, Babygirl! I need you to look into some school records for…” He blinked as he stood looking into the room. “The hell is this?” 

Garcia and Daisy both spun in their chairs. Equally red-eyed, guilty looks on their faces. Garcia beamed, with a slightly manic gleam. “Chocolate Thunder! What brings your smokey hot self to my lair of fab?” 

“I needed you to run some student records, see if they have any staff overlap.” He folded his arms and took in the disaster of an office. Due to the bloodshot eyes, and energy drinks they’d been at this for a while, paper wrappers from the sandwich shop were laying around with half eaten bags of chips and crinkled energy drink cans. “What is going on in here?” 

Daisy grinned. “Expanding your Oracle of All Things’s reach.” 

“There were places you couldn’t reach?” Morgan huffed in amusement. 

Garcia hit a key on her keyboard, causing the screens to all switch to puppy pictures. “You don’t want to know Sugar.” She held out her hand. “Pass the student names over so I can work my magic.” 

“Nuh uh, how long you been here?” He noted the disheveled looks both of them had. 

She blinked slowly and then looked at Daisy. “Twenty hours?” 

“Thirty.” Daisy groaned, straightening her back, it audibly cracked. “Oof, think I’m gonna go stretch it out in the gym.” She looked down at Garcia. “Wanna come with? It’ll help with the bullet wound ache.” 

Garcia shook her head. “Oh I couldn’t, I’m not flexible. The gym is an anathema to me, Terminator.” 

“Terminator?” Morgan asked, baffled. 

She waved him off. “Her hacker handle is Skyenet and she kicks ass.” 

“Garcia.” Daisy reached out catching one of Garcia’s waving hands. “Come on, we can get something greasy and delicious at that diner down the street afterwards.”

Morgan looked at Garcia and dropped the file on her desk. “Go, and get some sleep Mama. The case will be here when you get back.” 

Daisy slowly slid to her feet. “We’re a call away if a new case comes in.” 

“I didn’t say I’d go to the gym with you,” Garcia grumbled as she let herself be pulled out of her chair by a surprisingly strong Daisy. 

Morgan chuckled as he stepped out of the way. “Don’t let me keep you from your bonding.” He shook his head as he listened to bickering about workouts as the two disappeared down the hall. With a last amused huff he made his way back to the bullpen. 

“Do you want more coffee?” Prentiss asked from the kitchenette where she was pouring herself a large mug of it. 

He shook his head. “I’m good, and I think Garcia’s lair needs to be fumigated from the caffeine in there. She and Daisy are out for the rest of the day.” Morgan considered that. “Or, well, Garcia will be cleaning it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her let her lair get that disorganized.” 

“She let her lair get dirty?” Prentiss made a sound of surprise. “I didn’t know that could happen.” 

Morgan dropped into his chair. “Only when she hacks things I know I don’t want to know about.” 

“Noted.” Prentiss handed a fresh cup of coffee to Reid who was zoned into whatever his case file was. 

He picked up the next file from the stack of his paperwork. It never ended. 

////

JJ opened up the file as the plane lifted off. If the case was less graphic she’d almost smile at the disheveled, dragged from bed state of the team. Rossi was holding a thermos and looking at it like it was his salvation. Hotch was crisp as always, but the slow blinks gave away his exhaustion. Reid’s hair was flat on one side, and standing up on the other. Morgan was half asleep while spread out over his seat. Emily’s eyes were closed as she swayed slightly. Daisy had slumped down into the seat next to JJ’s. 

She cleared her throat getting the attention of the plane. “Chula Vista California, two teenage girls disappeared this evening. They were reported missing when they didn’t come home from the movie theatre.” 

Morgan frowned at the pictures of the teens. “Any divorce proceedings?” 

“No, victim one has married parents, and victim two has only her father who is a widower.” JJ answered. 

“So not a custody hearing.” Prentiss frowned. “Do the police have any suspects yet?” 

Hotch spoke up. “No going off on your own.” He leveled a serious glare at Daisy. 

Daisy gave a slow salute. “Got it bossman.” She paused looking at the photos. “They’re not runaways.” 

“Why do you say that?” Rossi glanced up curiously. 

She pointed to the picture. “New clothing, but not brand new. They’re both smiling with their eyes, makeup is trying to look grown up but classy grown up. Kids like that don’t run away. Or if they do they don’t last through the night before they’re calling their parents.”

“I agree, what do you think? Age preferential offender?” Morgan chimed in. 

JJ kept herself open as she spoke to the parents. Only an hour into the flight and a body had been found, five hours later and the body still hadn’t been identified. 

Mrs.Owen spoke carefully. She was barely holding herself together. “Jack dropped off the girls at the movie theater.”

“And I arranged to pick ‘em up, but they never came out. I went inside, but they weren’t there. And an usher told me he saw them leave the, uh, the theater halfway through the movie.” Jack, the father of the second girl continued. 

Morgan guided the questions. “Where’d they go?” 

“He said they went outside for a cigarette.” Jack shifted. 

Mrs. Owen looked devastated. “We didn’t even know Katie smoked.” 

“Did he say if they came back inside?” JJ was good at this part, getting the families to speak instead of just shutting down. 

Jack shook his head. “No.” He was staring at the ground.

Mr. Owen cut in, frustrated furry in his tone as he spoke. “We’ve been here all day. Why won’t they let us know who that is?” 

“Cause they don’t know who it is.” Jack answered, and something in his face unnerved JJ. He understood. “Do they?” 

“Why?” Mrs.Owen seemed to shake with what she refused to accept she knew. “What did they do to her?” 

JJ had to get them away from accepting the horror of the situation. “Look, until we know who it is and what’s happened, we--” 

“By ‘we’ you mean the FBI, right?” A fourth voice cut in.

Daisy moved then. “Look, we’re here to help.” Her lips pulled slightly as she stared at the man who’d spoken dead in the eye. “And I’m a consultant who specializes in cases like this. So if you want to help, talk to these agents who are trying to help you.” 

“You’re a little late for that don’t you think?” Jack stepped away as the Owens’ curled into each other. 

The interloper stepped closer. “I’m Pat Mannan, Jack’s friend.” 

“And you don’t trust the FBI.” Daisy moved just ever so slightly between JJ and the man. 

JJ took in the action and allowed the move. If Daisy thought this man might be a threat, she wasn’t going to disagree. 

“Look, Jack’s wife passed away a few years ago. Lindsey is all that he has.” Mr Mannan justified, and given the dead body laying just yards away it rang true. 

Daisy stepped closer to the man. “You’ve got something in your back pocket. It’s not a wallet that's in your front pocket, but strong shape means it’s solid. And I don’t play by the same rules as these fine FBI agents.” Her voice was low, the parents having now moved far enough that they wouldn’t hear. 

He pulled himself up. “I don’t know what you’re implying here-”

“That you have something, based on the background checks our computer analyst and I ran on everyone who was part of the search, it's a badge. But what I want to know is which agency?” Daisy didn’t so much as blink as she stared down the significantly larger man. 

Mr Mannan finally reached into his back pocket and pulled out credentials. “You’re not a consultant.” 

“CIA.” She glanced at him. “And you’re witness protection.” 

Morgan stepped forward then. “Do you know something we need to know?” 

“Jack and Lindsey are under my jurisdiction and protection.” Mr Mannan glared. “It has nothing to do with this.” 

Morgan crossed his arms. “Why don’t you let us be the judge of that?” 

JJ rested her hands on her hips as she looked at the geographical map that Reid was working on. Her eyes avoided the photos of Katie’s brutalized body. “How do you do it?” 

“Do what?” Daisy looked up from the laptop she was running data for Garcia on. 

JJ looked away from the board. “Did you ever blink?” 

“Oh.” Daisy’s fingers pulled up from her keyboard. “I grew up around things that...well I didn’t have a traditional childhood. The first time I aimed a gun at a man, who’d just kidnapped me and fully intended to murder me mind you, I couldn’t pull trigger. Everyone blinks. It’s what makes us human.”

JJ spoke softly. “Do you still flinch, even now?” 

“I do. Sometimes I’m so terrified that I just want to hide. But that's who people like us are, we go out there anyways.” Daisy closed her laptop. 

She leaned against the desk behind her. “How did you know Mannan was an agent?” 

“His priority wasn’t finding the girls. And clearly he had a different agenda. So different agency, or well.” She shrugged. “If he hadn’t of been white I wouldn’t have picked up on it.” She leaned back. “Or well if he’d seemed more like me.” 

JJ let out a sigh. “You should be a profiler.” 

“I don’t think I want to be.” Daisy offered out the chair next to her. “Want to help me go through these facebook photos for boys to identify?” 

////

Rossi passed a beer to Reid. “I’m sorry kid.” 

Reid silently accepted it. 

He sighed, and left Reid to his solitude, or well as much solitude as the plane had. It would take a long time—if ever—for Reid to move past watching Jack shoot the teen who’d kidnapped the man’s daughter. The kid had been a monster, but Reid had still had to watch him die. If the boy wonder needed some quiet after that, Rossie wasn’t going to interfere. 

Rossi made his way to where the pretzels were stuffed. The stupid little plane compartment door was stuck. “Damn thing.” 

“Fuck!” Rossi barely got his hands up in time to stop the case from falling on him. He frowned. “What is this? I thought this was where the pretzels were?” 

Daisy’s cheeks actually pinked from where she was sitting. “I might have equipped the jet better.” 

Hotch’s attention snapped from the window to the matter at hand. “Agent Coulson, what is now on this plane?” He sounded tired as he asked it. 

She slid down in her seat a little. “Just the basics that we might need; parachutes, sniper rifle, tranq handgun and rifles, grenades, rocket launcher, pepper spray canisters, gas masks, some other odds and ends...enough ammunition to secure a location till help can arrive.” 

The entire plane fell silent. 

Rossi barked out a laugh. “You think you have enough equipment to take a military base there?” 

“Depends on the size of the base and if I have to protect the team or not,” Daisy replied like that was a typical and understandable question. 

He shook his head. “There’s no pretzels on the plane are there?” 

“I can get rid of the redundant life vests and put snacks in their locker?” Daisy offered. 

Rossi shut the locker he’d opened. He was fairly sure the case that had nearly brained him, was a sniper rifle case. “If you’re getting us snacks how do you feel about jerky?” 

“Completely necessary.” Daisy nodded solemnly, her posture relaxing. 

He snorted as he dropped back down into his seat. Well then, it would seem they had their own personal specialist. Rossi reached under the arm of his seat, he had a feeling. Yup, that was a spool of garrat wire and a KA-bar… Well, at least there were tranq rounds.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap guys, thank you for all the comments and everything. I wasn't expecting this odd crossover to get much of a reaction at all. So it's been super sweet that it has.

Emily paused as she entered the bullpen. “You alive there Morgan?” 

The slumped form of her partner let out a wheezing groan. 

“He really should have listened when I said he shouldn’t try to keep up with my workout.” Daisy chirped from her desk. A desk that was slowly turning into a casefile sorting station, filled with colored tags and filing organizers. It was mildly horrifying to know it was all work JJ had been doing on top of the rest of her duties. 

She shook herself out of horrified awe at JJ’s workload. “What is your morning workout?” 

“You know morning stretches, tai chi, a nice run-”

There was a gurgle of protest from the Morgan lump.

Daisy continued as if her idea of a workout hadn’t nearly killed their coworker. “Then some minor strength upkeep, and finally stretching it all out. I told him that after mile five he really should have slowed down.” She shrugged while looking at Morgan with a bemused look. “You really ought to have some more of that gatorade I got you on the way in.” 

Morgan raised a single middle finger.

Daisy looked at the Morgan lump critically. “You don’t have to come to the gym for sparring practice after work you know?” 

Morgan lifted his head up enough to glare. “You’re not human.” 

“Nope.” Daisy’s eyes sparkled as she silently laughed at the man. She turned her gaze towards Emily. “Want to join Garcia and I at lunch? I’m teaching her tai chi and a little self defence.” 

Emily set her things down while trying not to laugh at the Morgan lump. “Will I look like that when we’re done?”

“No.” Daisy laughed at that. “I just thought Garcia would feel better if she felt less vulnerable, you know? I mean I didn’t start taking my training seriously till after my first undercover mission.” 

Emily understood that, the terror of being undercover. And Daisy was probably right about it helping Garcia heal. “I might pop in.” 

“Cool.” Daisy grinned as she stood up, a stack of files in her hands. “Guess what I have for you Morgan?” 

The Morgan lump let out a long groan. “Nooooooo…….” 

“Yes.” Daisy dropped the stack next to him. 

He let out a whimper as he cracked an eye at it. 

Emily bit her lip to keep from losing it. And if she spent the rest of her morning poking Morgan just to get pained grunts from him, well it was team bonding. That was her story and she was sticking with it. 

////

Garcia paused as she spotted Daisy, this was not going to go well. Underneath the layers the agent typically insisted on wearing, and contrary to her dietary habits, Daisy Coulson was apparently ripped. Because there was Daisy in her work out clothes. Yoga pants and a sports bra that left nothing to the imagination and sweet jesus the girl had abs, and biceps, and god this light workout was going to kill her. 

“Hey!” Daisy smiled happily as she skipped over. She took in Garcia’s work out clothing and seemed pleased, despite them covering a great deal more skin. “Don’t worry, we’re just working on some basics. You’re not a field agent so you don’t need to know how to snap a man’s neck with your thighs while shooting a gun.” 

Garcia gulped. “You’ve done that?” 

“A couple times, similar positions allow for non lethal takedowns as well.” Daisy eagerly herded her further towards the mats. “To start with though you’re going to learn some tai chi. It’ll help with any back issues from your desk chair and is good for learning to control your body.” 

Garcia cringed, but she knew enough to know escape was impossible. “Alright, Terminator…” Huh, such an apt name.

Daisy smiled. “Alright, you just want to follow what I do and we can get boba tea afterwards.” 

“Only because we’re hacking bros now.” Garcia slowly shifted into the same stance Daisy was in. 

Daisy gave an approving nod. “Good, and remember to let yourself be loose. Don’t worry about doing it perfect, you just want to feel a sort of flow and your muscles pulling and pushing against each other.” 

And so Garcia dubiously followed along. It was...nice. As the slow movements continued she honestly relaxed. She let out a sigh, this wasn’t the hell of gym class she’d been expecting. This she could do. Garcia lost track of time as she followed the smooth practiced motions of her friend. 

Finally Daisy straightened, her arms falling to her sides. “Good work out.” 

“That wasn’t…” Garcia paused as it dawned on her she was sweating slightly, and her muscles had a slightly pleasant gooey feeling to them. 

Daisy laughed, patting her on the back. “Come on, let’s get some water, shower and go get some boba tea and lunch. Maybe in a week or two I can show you how to disarm a man with a gun?” 

“You think I can do that?” Garcia smiled slightly, she wasn’t used to...well people assuming she could do active things like that. 

Daisy’s face scrunched slightly. “Why not? I mean I was in worse shape when my first SO showed me. But then I’d been living in a van for like two years before that and eating food from convenience stores. You’re already in way better shape for some basic training than I was.” 

Garcia flushed, pleased with the compliment. She did file away the van comment for later though. “So is Emily joining us for lunch?” 

“Maybe? She was pretty intent on that arson case I passed to her earlier.” Daisy shrugged. 

Garcia popped a piece of sushi into her mouth. “How are you single?” 

“Well if you think the BAU is bad about secrets, schedules, and strains on a relationship my old team was worse. The only successful relationships were between colleagues. And I don’t have the best dating history.” Daisy shrugged before taking a large mouthful of teriyaki. 

She balked at that. “Come on, you’re gorgeous. How can you not have a laundry list of 10s?” 

Daisy snorted. “I’ve been involved with three guys. Miles was ok? I mean he treated me fine but the age gap looking back was...not right. And he sold information he’d hacked for money and it got people killed.” She poked at her food somewhat listlessly. 

“Age gap?” Garcia’s eyes narrowed, oh she was going to ruin someone’s life.

Daisy shifted. “I mean I lied and said I was eighteen, but he was twenty and yeah.” 

“How old were you really?” Garcia reached out touching Daisy’s hand. 

“Doesn’t matter.” Daisy seemed to shake herself slightly. “Then Ward and the less said about him the better.” Her face darkened. “Short story is he was a plant and a traitor on our team.” 

Garcia swallowed. “You got him?” 

“He’s dead,” Daisy replied tightly. 

She paused, her eyes widening. Well, yeah that would make sense. CIA did not put up with traitors lightly after all. Garcia tried to think of something to say, wait three. Maybe the third one at least wasn’t terrible. “And your last boyfriend?” 

“He died.” The pain on Daisy’s face filled in more than enough blanks. 

Garcia opened and then shut her mouth. “I’m sorry.” 

“You get the award for worst first date though.” Daisy’s snagged a piece of Garcia’s sushi. 

She oddly didn’t feel upset about it. It didn’t feel like a personal failure when Daisy said it, instead it was as if she’d had a date who hadn’t showered in a week and had to get a friend to call and rescue her. Garcia nabbed a piece of Daisy’s teriyaki. “You're going to shadow me on my next first date.” 

“I’ve got a sniper rifle and could use the practice camping out.” Daisy sipped her tea. “So, this again tomorrow?” 

Garcia took her last piece of her sushi roll. “We could have a case.” 

“Webcams exist.” Daisy grinned. “And we’re dragging Emily.” 

She laughed. “Come on, let’s grab food for our missing lady.” 

Garcia laughed as she spotted the pink glittery taser on her desk. “Alright Terminator, you’re a badass.” 

////

Morgan eyed the house. “Prentiss, you have a case that’s stuck to you like this?” 

“Yeah, but it’s done.” Prentiss tapped her fingers against her belt. “What do you think? This case has been cold so long... “ 

His mouth thinned. “We go meet the kids, see if they know anything that can give us a place to start for working the case.” 

“And hope you don’t have to run after an unsub?” Her voice pitched up. 

He groaned. “It’s not…” He physically winced as his muscles pulled. “Ok yes, but she’s a beast in the gym. You try to keep up with her.” 

“You could not pay me to try and keep up with someone who switched my watch with a nearly identical one, only with garrote wire spooled in it... Also I’m pretty sure there’s a GPS tracker in all of our badges.” Prentiss gave him a look. “Why would you work out with her?” 

Rossi called from the driver's seat. “If you’re working the case, work the case.”

Morgan gave a stiff nod, and the stiffness had nothing to do with the workout from hell, really it didn’t. He climbed into the SUV. “Any new leads or are we just working with the case file Garcia printed out?” 

Morgan did not like clowns. Trying to find a clown who’d murdered a couple in their home with an axe was not helping that. He jogged between rigged games. Where did that guy go?

“Stop.” Daisy was suddenly in front of him, one hand flat against his chest. 

He frowned. “We have to catch our unsub. He’s getting away!” 

“He’s scared, remember the profile you gave? He’s developmentally a child and FBI agents are chasing him.” She stayed rooted. “Go circle and make sure he doesn’t leave this place. If he’s hiding I’ll find him. Ok?” 

Morgan grit his teeth but nodded. “Go.” He jogged off, glancing behind, he frowned as he saw her pressing her hand to the ground before taking off. 

////

Daisy slowed at the tarped up game stall she knew someone was hiding under. She carefully pulled the rubber tarp like fabric away, showing the crying man. He was large, clown paint mostly washed off his face, and so clearly terrified. She took a large step back and sat down on the beaten down and dying grass. “You’re safe.” 

She stayed there, ignoring the fact she knew the others had found them. They were staying back though. So she just waited. And slowly the unsub stopped sobbing. He was a massive man, but then he was just a kid inside. It took almost twenty minutes, but he did slowly crawl out from under the booth till he was sitting in front of her. 

Daisy smiled and held out her hand. “Hi, I’m Daisy.” 

“Lenny.” He shook her hand, his grip sweaty and strong. 

She gave him an encouraging smile. Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her badge and passed it over. “I work with the police.” 

“I don’t wanna go to jail.” He whimpered. 

Daisy reached out touching his shoulder. “I’ve been locked up, and you’ll be ok. You see over there, is that your dad?” 

“Yeah.” He nodded after a quick look over at the man Rossi was holding back. 

She carefully took his stupidly large sweaty hand. “He loves you, he’ll always be there. You’re going to be ok, but you did something bad.” 

“I was just so angry.” He curled into himself. 

Daisy nodded. “I understand, sometimes when you're angry you do things that you regret. Do you want some McDonalds? We can get some on our way to the station?” 

“With a toy?” He uncurled slightly. 

She hopped to her feet. “Yeah with a toy.” 

He managed to clamor up to his feet. He was nervous as she cuffed his hands in front of him. But he let her. 

Daisy held onto his forearm and carefully led him to the police car. She looked up at JJ who was looking at her with an inexplicable expression. Daisy looked back to Lenny. “I’m going to stay with you until we get to the station.” 

She sat down across from Lenny’s father. “I hired a lawyer for you and Lenny.” 

“What?” The man gaped at her. 

Daisy slid a card for the lawyer service across the table. “Your son needs to be monitored, he can become violent. And you deserve the time you’re going to get for not giving that family closure. But I get it. He’s your son.” 

The plane was silent as they made their way back to DC. Rossi finally shifted, staring her in the eye. “Why did you do that?” 

“The profile, you said the unsub would be simple, intelligence of a child in the body of a large man. Easily scared and wouldn’t have meant to hurt those people, not really. He wasn’t a serial killer that needed to be off the streets or bodies would keep dropping.” She rested her forearms on her knees. “And I would have killed for a father who cared as much as that man did. So I paid their lawyer fees, and I made sure Lenny didn’t get tackled and dragged into jail scared shitless.” 

Rossi touched the keychain of the kids’s faces. The victims he’d tried to bring justice to for more than twenty years. “Okay.”


	5. Chapter 5

JJ blinked at the cup of coffee that had just appeared in front of her. “What’s this?” 

“Green tea latte.” Daisy grinned. “I will convince you tea is good.” 

She huffed, smiling as she accepted the drink. “We’ll see.” 

“So how far are we on getting through the mountain?” Daisy dropped into the chair in front of her desk, and then dropped her crossed heels onto the desk. She raised her own cup of something and sipped at it. 

JJ took a moment to look at her desk. “I haven't seen this much of my desk since I started. Thank you.” 

“Anytime, I have no idea how you were doing as much as you do without help.” Daisy’s nose scrunched up. “Maybe I’m just used to missions that don’t involve this much paperwork?” 

JJ took a sip of her drink. “No!” She pushed the cup away. “It tastes like grass!” 

Daisy let out peals of laughter, her head falling back. 

“This isn’t a real drink, is it?” JJ raised a brow at Daisy’s laughter filled head nods. “Seriously? Why?” 

Daisy leaned up and snagged the drink and took a drink while wiggling her eyebrows. “It’s good.” 

“That’s disgusting.” JJ shook her head. “Coffee is more than enough.” 

“I mean coffee is good, but I will find a tea you like.” Daisy grinned. 

She shook her head. “So there was a cactus on my desk this morning?” 

“You complained about your office plant dying on you.” Daisy shrugged. “I also swapped your lights for sunlight full spectrum ones. Or well the lights for the whole floor. We used those when we were in the underground bases.” 

JJ was surprised she wasn’t upset by the changes. It made sense though, this was Daisy’s way of showing she cared. And it was also her job, protecting the team. “You take the job of protecting the team seriously. Please let me know before you make a large change to my office again in the future.” 

“Right, sure.” Daisy glanced at JJ’s window. “So can I change that to bulletproof glass?” 

JJ wasn’t sure if she was surprised that hadn’t happened yet or not. “How are you affording these changes?” 

“I’m a hacker who was told to defund a terrorist organization. He wasn’t clear on where all he wanted the money to go.” Daisy looked positively smug. “And if I use it for strengthening the FBI, well he can’t complain.” 

She barked out a laugh. “No?” 

“Yup! He should know better. I mean I was cuffed, black bagged and in an interrogation room the first time we met.” She took a long drink of the disgusting grass latte. 

JJ paused. “What, op gone wrong?” 

“Op gone right.” Daisy’s face shifted to something more serious. “I was a black recruit. I know you guys have noticed I’m not military or police. Definitely not college.” 

JJ had heard of black recruits before. But that was… “Your skill set is too broad for you to have just been a hacker like Garcia was?” 

“When I was fifteen I got involved with an anarchist terrorist group. Then when I was seventeen I was blackbagged and given a choice.” Daisy gave a shrug. “Disappear into a blacksite solitary cell till I died; or sign on the dotted line and join.” 

JJ felt a sudden ice. At seventeen she was playing soccer trying to get a scholarship for college. “They didn’t have you run missions for a few years though?” 

“Well the next day we flew to south america, gunfights, then captured by corrupt government officials, blew out the side of the plane to retake the plane, and got slatted for field training after that whole disaster.” Daisy laughed like it was a joke. 

JJ’s fingers dug into the arms of her chair. “You were a child.” 

“I turned eighteen a week later.” Daisy’s head tilted to the side slightly. “JJ? Are you ok?” 

She closed her eyes. “How common is it for our government to recruit underaged individuals?” JJ opened her eyes and stared at Daisy. 

Daisy froze, she looked like a rabbit in the headlights. “Uh… classified? So classified.” She winced. “Theoretically it's not uncommon?” 

JJ shook, it was so wrong. This job wasn’t for people who couldn’t choose it for themselves as adults. It was hard, brutal, and the risks and ways it changed your life. “I’m sorry.” 

“Why?” Daisy’s face was scrunched up in confusion. 

JJ breathed out, this wasn’t a time or place for that. She looked at Daisy, re-examining her. “How old are you?”

“Uh...it gets all a bit mixed up for super classified reasons.” Daisy bit at her lower lip. “But I think I’m around twenty sixish?” 

“What about your age could be classified?” JJ was going to get Garcia, and together they were going to hunt down the CIA director, if Daisy kept saying truly horrifying things like they were matter of fact. 

Daisy tightened up, her feet dropping down to the floor. “Look by the end of the year things are going to change. My files won’t be this classified. But for right now I’ve already said way too much.” 

“Why are you saying anything to me? I mean I appreciate it. But why?” JJ wasn’t sure what to do with the confusing mess that was Daisy, dangerous but sweet, surprisingly well adjusted adult for the most part. 

Daisy looked at her, face full of bemused warmth. “I’ve never met anyone like you before.” She stood up. “Want to join Garcia and I? You can skip the workout and just meet us for lunch?” 

“You just want to use me as a human shield to keep Agent Michaels from asking you out.” JJ was amused by the poor man who Daisy was straight up ignoring since he’d ignored her ‘no’ to a coffee date. 

Daisy gave her puppy eyes. “It’s like kicking a dog. I’ll pay.” 

“Fine, but I am not working out with you. I’m not insane.”

////

Emily stepped onto the crime scene, a pang rent through her, at the sight of the poor husband holding the baby. “This wasn’t suicide.” 

“No signs of a struggle.” Morgan looked doubtful, he was starting to agree it was a serial killer. 

She shook her head. “With a baby in the next room?” Emily spotted the momentarily stricken look on Daisy’s face. “Daisy can you go investigate the perimeter?” 

“Of course.” Daisy nodded sharply and dipped out of the house like her heels were on fire. 

Morgan paused in his examination of the kitchen. “We don’t profile each other.” 

“You don’t need to be a profiler to notice she wanted out of here.” Emily shot him a look before refocusing on the case. “Look at this place, she’d moved on. This is not the home of someone consumed by the past.” 

Emily jogged around the corner. The unsub had his latest victim lined up and had to know they were onto him. He could break pattern and start killing people without care for his method. She dropped her hand to her gun as she spotted Laurie Ann Morris, the next name on the man’s sick list. And there was someone in the car with her. “Rossi!” 

She took off running. If he had a gun she wouldn’t make it in time. “LAURIE ANN!” 

There was a single crack. 

Emily practically hit the car before ripping the drivers seat open and hauling Laurie Ann out of the car and behind her. She froze as she moved to draw her gun. The unsub was slumped, but there was a single bullet hole in the windshield. 

She hit her comm while looking for the glint of a sight. “Daisy was that you?” 

-“Just a tranq, so you might want to handcuff the unsub.”- Daisy’s voice crackled through.

Emily pressed the back of her hand to her forehead and took a deep breath. Not a third party sniper. She holstered her gun, and took out her cuffs. Rossi was handling Laurie Ann. She frowned at the way the unsub’s veins looked blue radiating out from where the round had to have hit him. Clicking the cuff into place she straightened. 

“Sorry about not warning you. I didn’t have a shot and then I did.” Daisy’s voice was unnervingly close. 

Emily spun, and there was Agent Coulson meandering over, a modded rifle loosely held in her hands. “You’re sure he’ll wake up?” 

“Dendrotoxin. Gonna be honest, despite using it a lot, I’m not sure what exactly it does besides knock people out.” She scoffed. “He’ll be fine, some bruising on his forehead from impact, and a wicked hangover headache when he wakes up, but you’ve got our unsub.” 

Emily nodded. “Right, I just… It’s a good thing you were here. That could have gone really bad.” 

“Glad I had time to handle it.” Daisy’s eyes flicked to the side pointedly. 

Emily carefully followed Daisy to the side, just out of the chaos of police tape going up, agents and cops securing the scene. “What’s going on?” 

“I’m going to be gone for the next three days, four tops.” Daisy’s body was ready for action Emily noted. 

She frowned slightly. “Why tell me like this?” 

“I have a mission, one day there, day for my job, one day back. Rough estimate of course. And I’ll inform Hotch and JJ. But you’re the most likely to spot anything wrong while I’m gone.” Daisy gave her a nod of acknowledgment. 

Emily straightened at that. “What type of trouble are you expecting?” 

“I’m not, but this case was hard on the team. Make sure they eat, don’t dwell on it. And if you think for even a second someone is too interested in the team, there’s a panic button under the lid of your watch.” Daisy wasn’t fully alert, but she was clearly more alert than typical. 

Emily ran through what she knew, this woman was highly paranoid, actually coming to her to ensure the team's safety was kind of sweet. “You expect it will be all quiet?” 

“Should be.” Daisy shifted slightly. “But you’ll do it?” 

Emily nodded. “Yeah, I’ll look out for the team.” She paused slightly. “Come back safe.” 

“That’s not a problem.” Her grin showed too many teeth. “No offense to this team, but retirement doesn’t suit me.” 

Emily let out a huff of surprise. “You call this retirement?” 

“I have an apartment for the first time in my life. And I haven’t been shot at in over a month. My longest streak of not being shot at used to be a week.” She shrugged. “This is retirement.” 

Emily sat down next to JJ and passed over a bag of cheetos. “They’re from Daisy.” She opened up her book of Vaugner. 

“Do you want to play some scrabble?” JJ asked, tone carefully carefree. 

She lowered her book. “Yeah that sounds good.” 

////

Hotch stared at the inside of his fridge. It was full of groceries...he hadn’t been home for a week but they were all fresh. Slowly he turned. “You filled my fridge?” 

“You have terrible eating habits.” A bland middle management sort of balding man was sitting at the rickety kitchen table. 

Aaron shut the fridge and turned. To his guest. “Who are you?” 

“Assistant/moral compass to the Director of SHIELD. Name’s Coulson.” The man gave him a banal smile. “And my daughter is on your team. Well the closest to a daughter I’ll ever have. Thought I should check in.” 

He moved slowly, losing his tie before sitting down across from the man. “Credentials?” 

“Of course.” Coulson passed his badge over. “They must expect a lot of you, or, well, once did if you were given clearance to know of our existence.” 

Aaron passed the badge back. “Why put Daisy on my team? What’s the agenda?” 

“I want better for her than I have been able to give.” He straightened his sleeve. “And she can’t have that in SHIELD, she’s level 10 by the way.” 

His jaw tightened. He knew what that meant, it was the highest clearance level on the planet. Less than a dozen people were at that level. “She shouldn’t be on my team.” 

“She’s never lived anywhere longer than two years. Our team went through more in a few years than most face in their entire careers. You know how agents like that burn out.” Coulson didn’t blink.

Hotch blinked. “They run suicide missions.” He took in the man in front of him. “She’s already started running them.” 

“She’s alive because she’s exceptional. But she’ll crack if I keep her in the field where she belongs.” Coulson gave a slight shudder. “Based on the requisition orders I’ve had to sign in the last month, she likes your team.” 

He could feel himself softening, this was an agenda he could understand, and the man before him had all the body language ticks of being honest. Of course if he was who he claimed to be and likely was, that was entirely on purpose. But still. His teeth had been on edge for the last three months he’d had to deal with Agent Daisy Coulson. But keeping a bright and promising agent from burning out wasn’t a threat to his team. “If I find out you were lying to me…” 

“The consequences will be felt even at my high perch.” Coulson finished for him. He smiled warmly, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Assist my daughter to continue bonding with your team and I’ll see to it that your Strauss problem goes away.” 

Hotch considered the content of the fridge he’d just seen. “Do you want to stay for a drink?” 

“Only if you let me cook something. Your separated/divorced apartment depresses me.” Coulson got up and started pulling out ingredients. 

Hotch stood himself and opened the cupboard he’d put the whiskey in. “Rough day for you?” 

“In a way. I have advantages many don’t.” Coulsons eyes twinkled. “Any unlisted allergies I should know about?” 

Hotch wasn’t surprised Coulson had read his file. “No, whisky fine?” 

“Haven’t had a good whisky in months.” Coulson replied with a laugh in his voice. “Omelettes good?” 

He poured glasses. “It's two am and I just spent a week investigating suicides.” 

“Fair enough.” Coulson easily replied while rolling up his sleeves to his elbows. “My daughter requested six military grade drones for your team.” 

Hotch took a sip of his dink while sliding the second one to the man across from him. “The money would be better spent funding more BAU agents for more teams.” 

“The more serial offenders the more funding and teams come about. And I didn’t approve the drones. I’m mostly hopeful she knows it was overkill.” Coulson hummed as he began to crack eggs. 

Hotch set his glass down. Well, at least he wasn’t alone in his apartment. “Should I expect more of your team to visit?” 

“The Fitzsimmons might, but they’re on honeymoon so I'd give it a few more months.” Coulson chuckled. “Mack and May might. Otherwise no, and likely if any of them drop by it won’t be to your offices” 

He nodded. “Good.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! You continue to blow me away with your response to this.

Emily snorted as she spotted a bottle of nail polish for kids who chewed their nails. “She’s back.” 

“Really?” Reid perked up from where he’d been making some colorful threats toward the handwriting in the case file he was looking at. 

She held up the bottle. “Well I didn’t buy it, and none of you gentlemen know this is my favorite color.” 

Morgan gave a good natured shrug. “Fair enough. So where’s our super secret Terminator then?” 

“JJ’s office is the most logical option,” Reid put in.

Emily closed her current file as she stood up. “I think I’ll just check. I owe her a thank you for the polish anyways.” 

Morgan seemed to pause. “Oh, that means morning workouts.” He groaned. 

“Your fault for being macho enough to think you can keep up with her.” Emily shook her head ‘men’. She was amused by Morgan refusing to accept a tiny asian woman was physically crushing him without even trying. It was a hopeless cause, and she had her suspicions about rumors of performance enhancing drugs for field agents. Whether it was a pipe dream or a reality she didn’t know. But if she had to guess Daisy had been dosed with steroids. 

Emily knocked on JJ’s office door before walking in. She smiled as she spotted Daisy’s familiar form, folded up in a chair. JJ was holding a paper cup filled with what seemed to be coffee, based off the fact that she was actually drinking it. “Good to have you back Daisy.” 

“Hey Prentiss.” Daisy turned and beamed, which would have been nice enough if she didn’t have a massive black eye. 

Her eyes widened. “What happened?” 

“That’s what I asked.” JJ raised her brow. “Willing to tell now?” 

Daisy rolled her eyes. “Local military commander wasn’t interested in working with a ‘little girl’. I gave him first punch. It’s not that bad, didn’t even fracture the orbital bone.” 

“Didn’t fracture the…” Emily shook her head. “Seriously?” 

She shrugged. “It was the fastest way to get them to follow orders.” 

“Should you have ice on that?” JJ asked, exasperated. 

Daisy laughed. “I’m good, and really this is nothing. I mean I didn’t get shot or blown up, easy mission. So, I hear you had a doozy of a case down in Texas?” 

“It’s hard when it’s a kid.” Emily didn’t mention how hard it had been on Reid. But then, likely Daisy would realize that soon enough. “So any hints about your super classified mission other than you worked with the military?” 

“Nope.” Daisy popped a piece of gum into her mouth. “But I was watching a movie on the way back and had a thought. We should do brunch sometime. Like us three and Garcia. Brunch looks super fun and they have those champaign and orange juice things.” 

“Mimosas?” JJ’s eyes flicked to Emily with a grin. “I think we could do brunch.” She shifted her whole attention to Daisy. “My paperwork is miraculously done by the time five o’clock rolls around now.” 

Daisy looked particularly smug. “Well that’s what happens when you have a reasonable workload.” 

“Which you clearly don’t.” JJ gave a pointed look to the bear paw cactus on her desk. And then for some reason at the window.

Emily took a second look at the window. “Is that bullet proof glass?” 

“I do not understand the FBI, your security is terrible. I could have broken in when I was a teenager.” Daisy looked truly disgusted. 

She shook her head, well it was true. “Good thing you’re one of us.” 

JJ frowned as her phone went off. She held up a finger while picking it up. “Jareau?” 

Emily wasn’t sure what it was but something kept her from using this moment to get back to work. 

JJ hit the mute button, pressing the receiver to his chest and looked at Daisy with a perplexed expression. “There’s a woman downstairs, name of Melinda May here to see you?” 

“May?” Daisy’s whole face lit up as she hopped out of her chair. “Don’t worry about her disappearing from the guest desk while we were talking. I’ll meet her down in the gym.” 

JJ’s bearing had stiffened slightly. “Who is she?” 

“My old SO.” Daisy’s entire being radiated delight as she practically bounced out of the room. 

Emily stuck her hands into her pockets. “We’re gonna wanna see what’s going on in the gym. You don’t get a chance to see two specialists of that caliber very often if at all.” 

“What do you mean?” JJ frowned.

Her lips quirked. “Come on, Garcia will give us a bird’s eye view.” 

////

Rossi pulled at the collar of his shirt. Miami heat was a doozie. He cleared his throat before they all got to work on this newest case. “Detective, when you see an asian woman, mid to late twenties, bullet graze scar on her cheek, she’s with us.” 

“She’s not arriving with you why?” The lead detective Lopez asked. 

He chuckled. “Agent Daisy’s a badass. Likely surveilling the area for threats.” 

“You make it sound like this is Baghdad.” Lopez joked as she led them into the station. 

He shared a knowing look with Pretiss, if Daisy hadn’t been involved with the massive series of strikes against AIM, after Stark’s kidnapping and discovery, he’d eat his left shoe. “We all have our quirks after working this job.” 

“Huh, well I’m gonna take the skinny kid and Derek to the dump sites, so I got my cell, radio. If anyone doesn’t give you anything just call me.” Lopez stepped back, eager to get back to the case, or well get back to ‘Derek’. 

Emily gave the detective an absent minded, “Great.”

“She did say she wasn’t good at names.” Rossi fought back the desire to laugh. 

Emily rolled her eyes up to him. “Remembered Derek.” 

“Wonder how she’ll describe us?” He focused on the effects of the latest victim. It wasn’t a good sign their unsub had subdued and killed a fit vacationing cop. 

Emily sounded amused, but the humor fading as she focused on the task at hand as well. “Oh, I’m sure I don’t want to know.” She sighed. “It’s always sad seeing someone's life reduced to the things they had with them when they died. It’s just so clear they didn’t know how short their time would be.” 

“Odd.” Rossi noted the lack of worn suits despite claims of business. That might end up being something. 

////

JJ was exhausted, it was late and having Wil there was just straining her further. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel for him. His partner had been murdered. And then turned out to have a secret life, to have never trusted him enough to share his sexuality. But it was all just...it was complicated. She spotted Will on the phone as she left the station. 

She worried at her hair, but stepped forward. “Hey.” 

“You know….” He rocked back, grief painted across his face. “Sure is warm in the Bayu but at least it cools down some at night. What, are you leaving?” 

JJ looked down to her blazer she had draped over her crossed arms, protectively held in front of her. “Yeah. I’m beat.” 

“Without saying good-bye?” He straightened ever so slightly, though he didn’t lose his laid back posture. 

She shook her head. “I didn’t know where you were?” 

“Did you look?” He gave that lopsided grin she’d found so charming all those months ago in New Orleans. 

JJ took a long moment to take in the man she’d been seeing. Her eyes flicked along him. He was everything she should want in a man.

He huffed at her silence. “Should I be worried? I mean, it doesn’t take a profiler to see that you got one foot out the door in this relationship.”

“Could you just please keep your voice down?” She cut off what was surely an airing of his concerns about their relationship. 

He jerked his head towards the glass doors of the station. “I don’t care if they hear us.” He glanced at her before looking back to the door and raised his voice. “Hey, YO!”

“Shh.” 

“I’m crazy about her.” He pointed at her without pausing in the least at her attempt to get him to lower his voice. Turning back to her he looked at her like she held his heart. “You know, I don’t have a problem with people knowing about it.” 

“Well I do,” she said shortly.

“Why?” 

It was not a good day. “Just because!” She could see him readying to dig further. “All right, it’s-- it’s my business.” She willed him to understand her point. 

He looked down with his stupid puppy eyes. “Are you ashamed of this?”

“No.” She barely resisted rolling her eyes. 

“Did I offend you?” He raised a shoulder in question. 

She just felt tired. “No.” 

“I say something wrong?” He tried.

“No.” 

“You been… you seeing another guy?” 

She glared slightly. “No!” 

“Do you wanna see another guy?” 

“No.” 

“You want to break up?” 

“Y…” She fell silent. Fuck. This wasn’t the time or the place for this but Will wouldn’t let it rest. 

He looked surprised as if he hadn’t been expecting that. “You… you do?” 

JJ hesitated before giving the slightest of nods. “Yeah.” 

There was a long pause before he shifted back slightly. “Ok.” 

“You’re supposed to hop on a plane every weekend forever? And neither one of us is willing to relocate, so-”

“When did we have that discussion?” He had the gall to sound insulted. 

She felt her frustration bleeding through. “Well do you?” 

“Maybe.” But even as he said it his head jerked to the side slightly. 

So she challenged him. “You want to give up your career in New Orleans so you can live in Quantico, Virginia?” 

“Well I’d at least like to have that option.” He floundered slightly. “You know look, JJ. All I’m looking for here is an acknowledgment to your friends that you care about me.” 

“Why?” Her hand went up in frustration. “Why is that so important to you?” 

“Why?” He pulled back sounding so hurt. “Have a good night JJ.” Wil walked away.

She wiped at her eye before turning around to face where he was going only to pause at a very awkward looking Daisy stepping to the side so Wil could walk past her. She was holding a drink carrier of sodas. It dawned on her Daisy had left to get them something with ice in it not that long ago. 

Daisy held up a hand. “Hey?” 

“Perfect.” JJ sniffed, and turned away. 

There were a couple of steps and then a warm hand nearly touching her shoulder before pulling back. “Wait, please.” 

“What, want me to make more of a fool of myself?” JJ dropped her head. “Sorry, you didn’t deserve that.” 

Daisy cautiously set the drink tray down. “It’s ok, and the hotel has a great bar?”

She blinked. “What?” 

“I’m good at listening, and it doesn’t sound like you’ve had anyone to talk to about this for a while.” Daisy stayed soft. “If that’s not what you need just let me know, but if you need a drink and an ear I’m here.” 

JJ pushed some of her hair back. “We’re on a case.” 

“And it’s late, neither of us are the agents who are the most impactful at this point in the investigation.” Daisy slid her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. “And you know, cheap vodka is my go to after a bad break up.” 

She sighed, the fight draining out of her. “I could use something really, really strong.” 

“Well it’s a good thing I already claimed one of the SUVs for the night.” Daisy carefully gestured to the parking lot. 

JJ played with the umbrella in her cocktail of dubious name. “So how much did you hear?” 

“Enough.” Daisy knocked back a shot. 

She blew out a breath. Grabbing one of the several shots Daisy had ordered for them she knocked one back herself. Hissing she dropped it back to the bartop. “Not going to pry?” 

“Hey I’m just here to listen if you need it, be a shoulder if you need it, and possibly hold your hair while you puke.” Daisy sipped from her proper glass of bourbon. “I get how some stuff is so complicated you just...there’s not much to talk about sometimes.” 

JJ leaned her forehead against the palm of her hand. “I’m not...I wasn’t ashamed of him. I just… If I told everyone it would make it real and if it’s real people get hurt you know?” 

“I get it.” Daisy looked at her with painful understanding. She seemed to consider not saying anything, but then she was asking. “How long were you and the detective….a thing?”

She took a drink of her cocktail, fruity. “A year now of being...something.” 

“A whole year and you never wanted to take the dive?” Daisy’s brow rose. She took a swig of her bourbon. “That sounds like a sign there.” 

JJ made a low sound of frustration. “Well I’ve always been good at running. Ran my way into a soccer scholarship and have run my way out of every chance at a relationship I’ve had.” 

“Well are you dating guys you need to run from? Cause of my three relationships two of them were raging assholes and terrorists. So you know, there’s that.” 

She nearly snorted out her drink. “What?” 

“Oh yeah, first serious boyfriend recruited me into a terrorist organization when I was fifteen and then went against all our ideals and shit to make money. Got people killed. Then I guess I just went for worse. Ward was basically one of your guys’s unsubs. I don’t even want to know how many people he murdered.” Daisy tilted her head back and downed her bourbon. Looking down the bar she signaled the bartender for a new round for them. 

She didn’t know what to say to that. So she downed her drink as well. “Your third serious relationship?” 

“I actually met him in a...well I guess you could call it a cult turning towards bio-terrorism.” Daisy huffed out a laugh. “But he was...he was a good man. He died a hero.” 

JJ touched Daisy’s shoulder as she spotted how the other woman’s eyes were misting slightly. She didn’t know what to say to that. Instead she pushed one of the depleting number of shots towards Daisy. 

Daisy snorted, but knocked it back. “It still hurts, I think it always will. I wouldn’t trade what time I had with him for anything. The time I spent not with him for whatever reason seems so stupid looking back.” 

“Maybe I’m being ridiculous. He’s everything I could want.” JJ accepted her new drink and waited for the bartender to leave. “When I’m with him I can just...forget reality.” 

Daisy poked her. “So why do you think if you made it ‘real’ you’d get hurt? Cause I heard a lot of logistics concerns and stuff.” 

“I won’t lose this job. I know people think what I do isn’t as important as the profilers-”

“That’s bullshit.” Daisy frowned. “The team wouldn’t function without you. When you called out sick last month it was chaos. I had to answer phones, JJ.” 

She smiled at that. “You know what I mean though. People think I’m just the pretty face for the media. Everyone... “ 

“What about him gives you that sick feeling in your gut that it won’t work?” Daisy leaned against the bar. “Because after a year there’s gotta be something. I mean that’s ‘did you use my toothbrush?’ stage.” 

JJ snorted before taking a sip of her drink. She turned maudlin. “I don’t know. I’m always the bad guy, it’s always my job getting in the way, and me canceling and I’m tired. But I’m tired of being alone. I want the whole happy relationship, kids, family home thing.”

“You want your Fitz.” Daisy nodded solemnly as if that made sense. 

JJ stared at Daisy.

Daisy blinked before laughing. “When I got recruited there were two scientists on the team, Fitz and Simmons. And they like...they clicked. We called them Fitzsimmons. Pretty sure for the first few months all of us were confused at which one was which. And Simmons is like my best friend. So I always say I want my own Fitz, but not Fitz because that would be weird.”

“Sounds nice. What if Wil is my Fitz and I’m just running for stupid reasons?” JJ looked at Daisy.

Daisy hummed. “Do you want him? Or are you hanging onto him because he’s the closest you’ve met to what you want?”

JJ bowed her head. “I’m awful.” 

“No you’re not. You’re lonely and in a high stress job.” Daisy pushed a shot closer to her. “And you deserve someone who doesn’t make you want to run. Or pressure you for things or try to make public scenes when you clearly hate those.” 

JJ downed the shot. “He really does those. I don’t know why?” 

“From what I saw, which was limited, it was a fight. But does he respect you?” Daisy asked. 

She considered it. Did he?

Daisy gently bumped her. “If you have to think about it you can do better. At least that’s my two cents.” 

“He does all the right things, but then… I feel guilty for canceling on him, for the hours this job requires, not being ready to move as quickly as he is, it’s just….exhausting.” JJ slumped. 

Daisy nodded. “Then you did the right thing breaking up with him. Relationships shouldn’t make you tired. Change is terrifying, but it shouldn’t be exhausting.”

Could it really be that simple? No blame, just a simple ‘you did the right thing?’ and affirmation she wasn’t crazy. JJ downed a shot.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sup!

Daisy frowned as they went careening around a corner, towards the youth hostel the unsub was in. “Morgan, let me go in? I get places like this. I go in, I tranq the guy. This is a lot of civilians who could get hurt.” 

“I can delay everyone long enough you can have maybe three minutes.” Morgan shot a quick look at her. “Can you find and neutralize him that fast?” 

Daisy ripped off her collared shirt and started pulling one of Morgan’s shirts out of his go bag. “I can do it in one.” She grabbed eyeliner and smeared it across her eyes. Dropping the eyeliner she unfastened her braid and shook her hair out. Opening the glove compartment she grabbed the tranq gun and shoved it into the back of her pants. 

“What are you..shit how do you do it that fast?” He yelped as he took a second look at her. 

She grabbed the flannel shirt she’d stuffed under the seat. “I kinda miss getting to go undercover. They just send me in as the muscle now.” Daisy braced as they slammed to a stop in front of the hostel. “Good luck.” She slid out the door. 

“If you need back up.” Morgan was out and grabbing his radio. 

Daisy easily jogged inside. She relaxed as she slid into the familiar atmosphere. A slow circle of the recreation rooms and she spotted the unsub. She felt bad for him, years of horrific abuse, and a psychological break. He was a monster, but a made one. She ambled towards him. “Hey, think I could join your card game?” 

He looked up with a smile. Before he could answer he slumped unconscious to the ground. 

Daisy ignored the jumping and shrieks of the kids at the sound of her gun going off. She pulled out the cuffs and cuffed the unsub. 

“Put your HANDS UP!” A voice demanded as the cops came bursting in. 

Morgan trying to get to the front. “She’s with us! Don’t shoot!”

Daisy held up her hands. “You must be Detective Lopez, haven’t bumped into you yet.” 

The lead cop’s gun lowered. “You’re FBI?” 

“CIA technically.” She shrugged, keeping her hands up.

“PUT YOUR GUNS DOWN!” Morgan ordered. 

Finally the cops lowered their guns. She looked at Morgan. “Three minutes huh?” 

“You said you could do it in one.” He huffed, his shoulders easing now that guns weren’t aimed at her. 

Daisy dropped her hands. “Do you think I should get a taser to be lower key? Cause honestly once the guns come out it usually means a lot more violence than your unsubs put up.” 

Prentiss stepped forward putting her fingers against the unsub’s neck. “Let’s get him out of here before he wakes up.” 

Daisy set a bag of deeply greasy empanadas down next to JJ. She then set down the six pack of gatorade. “Since we’re slow enough you can feel the hangover now.” 

“How are you so cheerful?” JJ groaned while accepting a bottle of the gatorade and taking several great gulps of it. 

She smiled. “I don’t get hangovers anymore. Though I did get really high two years ago and coming down off that was...not fun.” 

“You suck.” JJ breathed in the scent of greasy empanadas. “Are those for me?” 

Daisy started pulling out the paper wrapped food. “I got you drunk, means I have to get you through the hangover.” She softened as she looked at JJ. “That’s what normal friends do right?” 

“You’re spectacular.” JJ sighed before taking a giant bite out of a pork empada. 

She chuckled. “Prentiss, how much more paperwork do we have before we’re loading up on the jet?” 

“Not much.” Emily looked up from where she was writing her formal report. She looked at JJ and then made an ‘aw’ face in understanding. “Hotch yell at you for using a tranq gun again?” 

Daisy grinned. “I believe he’s accepted it as the lesser evil, that you don’t have to have stand offs or hostage situations anymore.” 

“Think we can all get some of those tranq rounds? It would be nice to be able to shoot without killing.” Emily’s face fell grimmer. 

Daisy nodded. “Yeah I can get you an Icer.” 

Morgan clapped Daisy on the shoulder as he walked past. “Good job Coulson.” 

JJ slapped Morgan’s hand away from the bag of empadas. “They’re mine Derek. Maybe you can get Detective Lopez to find some for you.” 

“Oh I see how it is.” He huffed in good humor. “Prentiss you need me to sign any of your reports?” 

Daisy had already signed off on her shooting of the unsub and honestly she didn’t have profile and investigation notes to fill for the prosecutor. Dotting all the i’s and all that. She spotted Wil talking to one of the local cops. She purposely stepped between his eyeline and JJ. No one wanted a scene. “So, pork the right call on those empadas?” 

“God yes.” JJ half moaned into her hangover food. 

Her lips pulled up. “So any of your paperwork I can help out with so we can be in the air sooner?” 

“What, got a hot date at Quantico?” JJ looked up at her curiously. 

Daisy snickered at that. “Naw, I just do not like this heat. Like it’s so muggy.” 

“Not much better in Virgina honestly.” Emily chimed in. “My first summer after joining the BAU was rough.” 

////

Rossi’s eyebrow twitched as he saw Daisy slouched with a false ease as she politely hovered around JJ. Well, that was interesting. He turned his attention back to Hotch who was sitting in front of him. “Daisy paid for this unsub’s lawyer too.” 

“Is that bad?” Hotch looked away from the window. “Do you know how rare it is for someone who can ruthlessly take down our unsubs, to still sympathize with them?” 

Rossi hummed, well Hotch was coming around on their newest member then. “How’s Jack?” 

Rossi watched the team making their way off of the jet. It had been a hard case, a hard week. But he could see the team wasn’t ripped to pieces over this one. He moved to climb into his car and paused as he spotted someone already in it. “Shouldn’t you be driving JJ home?” 

“Garcia picked her up.” Daisy shrugged from where she was curled in his passenger seat. 

“Ah.” He climbed into the driver's seat and started up the car. “Am I dropping you off anywhere?” 

She looked at him. “Well I was hoping you’d teach me how to cook?” 

“You’re super bored aren’t you? First Garcia, then Morgan and JJ.” He pulled away. “So how does me teaching you to cook figure into your plans?”

Daisy played with the end of her braid. “It just feels right.” 

“Well I guess teaching you some of the basics won’t hurt.” He wondered at what the deadline she’d been given was? She was too busy attempting to help everyone for it to be natural. 

////

Hotch frowned at the containers of dinners with post it notes attached. Based off the little heart doodles it hadn’t been his last unexpected guest. He pinched his nose. Spooks were the worst, and he could feed himself damnit. 

He looked at Daisy. “Rissato?” 

“Rossi’s a good teacher.” Daisy tossed him the SUV keys. “I packed you an icebox for the roadtrip to the conference.” 

He caught the keys and couldn’t help how his lips twitched up. “Protect the others.” 

“Gottchya Bossman.” She gave a sloppy wave and traipsed off. 

Hotch shook his head fondly. 

////

JJ locked eyes with the lead detective. “What the hell happened?” 

“Says some guy in an old brown van paid him 50 bucks to walk the dog up and down the street. Told him to be careful, someone in the neighborhood was kidnapping people’s pets.” The lead detective looked down at where the man who’d been turned into a patsy, by their stalker was being questioned by two beat cops. 

Emily huffed in disgust. JJ wanted to scream or do something. A woman had come to them for help and now she was missing. Her fiance, distracted by their stolen dog. It made JJ feel sick. 

“Where’s Daisy?” Emily asked suddenly. 

JJ paused. “She was with us in the car.” She turned expecting the familiar laid back but steady presence at her shoulder. She shrugged. “Probably checking the perimeter.” 

The fiance was distraught as he cut in. “The back door’s off its hinges. Her cell’s still in the house, her wallet. Her purse is on the bed. He just… he just took her.” His voice was rough, barely keeping it together. “I was right here.” 

Emily carefully stepped in, “Let’s go inside.” 

JJ turned to the detective as Keri’s, a victim’s now fiance, was led away. 

“What now?” The lead detective asked her. 

JJ just felt like a failure. She’d tried to help someone before bodies started dropping. Just one case where they stopped the crime before it happened. “Well, he finally got her. He’s not about to let her go.” Because they’d failed. Hadn’t found him fast enough. She wished she didn’t know what happened next. 

Morgan caught her shoulder before she could go into the house and desperately look for clues with the others. “JJ, Daisy has been antsy ever since we took this case. We may not profile each other but I don’t think she’s checking the perimeter. And if I’m right…” 

She felt a shiver down her spine. “You think she’ll kill the unsub.” 

“I think it's a distinct possibility and we need to find them before Daisy does.” His jaw tightened. “Come on, maybe our guys left something behind.” 

////

Daisy stepped into the middle of the road. She eyed the oncoming brown van. Tightening her hand into a fist, the vibrations ran through her feet and into the road. 

Both left tires blew at the same moment, the van careening to one side. 

She raised a hand and a wall of vibrations stopping it directly in front of her. The metal dented like it’d hit a brick wall. Daisy’s eyes narrowed as she saw the terror in the unsub’s eyes. It’d been too long since she’d used her powers. And she had some frustration to work out. Not to mention she didn’t like kidnappers, at all. 

The unsub stumbled out of the driver’s side door. “What the fuck?! What are you doing in the middle of the road? Did you do this?” 

She waited till he raised a hand gesturing at her angrily. Her hand grabbed his. “You shouldn’t have kidnapped Keri asshole.” And then she twisted. 

Daisy left the unsub tied to the front grill of the van. It was too shoved into the rest of the van to be moved by a puny man like the unsub, especially not with his newly dislocated shoulder, road burn and three rounds of dendrotoxin to the groin. She grabbed the side door of the van and ripped it open. There was the squeal of tearing metal. She spotted Keri, curled defensively, tied into her seat. “Keri, I’m here to get you out.” 

“Daisy?” She gasped out a sound, her whole body shaking. “Is he gone?” 

Her lips pulled into a slightly mean grin. “He’s not going to hurt you.” Daisy hopped into the back of the van and slid a knife out of her sleeve and sliced the ropes holding Keri in place with a quick flick of her wrist. “You’re safe.” 

Keri was out of her seat as soon as she could. 

Daisy carefully helped her out of the van. She tilted her head to the slightly bleeding and unconscious unsub cuffed to the damaged front of the van. “He’s not going to hurt you.” 

Keri looked around the area frowning. “Where...where are the police, your car?” 

“I’m a specialist.” Daisy cautiously led Keri over to a bit of grassy medium and sat down with her. “I can move faster without the team when lives are at risk. Are you hurt anywhere?” 

Keri shook her head. “He had a gun I couldn’t…” 

“You did what you had to do.” Daisy passed a taser into the woman’s hands. “I know what it’s like.” 

Keri’s face scrunched up in confusion. “But you’re an FBI agent?” 

“My creepy stalker was my ex and former trainer.” Daisy shared carefully. “He was a monster, and I had to play that I didn’t know it. To kiss and pacify him.” She felt bile at the memories. Everything with Ward was so mixed up, especially after the framework. But nothing could change the horror and terror of that first time he’d taken her. “Believe me, surviving long enough for someone to get there for you took strength.” 

Keri’s hands were shaking. “Do you ever feel safe again?” 

“I’d recommend self defense classes, it’ll help.” Daisy pulled at some of the dry grass they were sitting on. “But I still have nightmares.” 

Keri’s emotionally spent dry sob echoed around them. “Is it actually over?” 

“If they don’t convict him I’ll put a bullet between his eyes.” Daisy held the other woman’s gaze without flinching. “I’m not like the BAU. They’re good people, I’m not. This is over, I promise.” 

Keri’s shoulders softened and then she was sobbing. 

Daisy didn’t offer to touch her. The only person she’d want touching her after this would be here soon enough. 

It didn’t take long before the sirens were audible and then the police cars and SUVs came screeching into the small suburban street. 

Morgan burst from his vehicle and ran for the unsub. He practically leaned against the van as he realized the unsub was alive. He looked up meeting Daisy’s eyes. Finally he gave a slow nod. 

She stood and left as Keri’s fiance came barreling towards her. 

JJ stopped in front of her. “How’d you find her?” 

“I put gps in all of her shoes. You said he ‘cared’ about her. He’d have let her keep her shoes if he managed to get to her.” Daisy knew she had to say something, JJ was looking at her with the slightest edge of wariness. “I know what it’s like to be made helpless. No one should have to suffer that.”


	8. Chapter 8

Emily stared at the van. The door had literally been ripped off its hinges. There were finger indents in the door. The amount of strength was...steroids? This was super soldier level strength. Forget rumors. She stepped around and stared at the front of the van. The vehicle had hit something, and she’d never seen tires blown out like that. Whatever had happened here hadn’t been by the book. 

“Did you see the door?” Morgan spoke lowly.

She nodded. “I’d heard rumors of super soldier programs inside the government.” Her throat felt dry at suggesting something on this scale. This was beyond anything she’d imagined. 

“This whole thing will be classified.” Morgan crossed his arms. “She didn’t kill him.” 

Emily felt his unease at how this could be used to affect the team by others. “I understand why us now.” She looked pointedly at the ambulance. “Did you see him? That’s a lot of barely restrained rage.” 

Morgan’s arms tightened. “But it is restrained.” 

“She cares about us.” Emily offered, though she knew it was weak. 

He sighed. “She’s a wild card, but she’s always shown mercy and empathy. That’s not someone who’s a risk for going on a spree. And look at how much effort she’s gone to protect our team? That’s a person who needs a stable foundation.” 

“And the BAU is that?” Emily couldn’t help the disbelief. “If this is what it looks like they won’t let her stay with us for long. And you’ve seen her behavior. She’s already preparing for not being around for that long. Making dinners for Hotch? Hacking afternoons with Garcia? Workouts with you? That’s someone settling her business.” 

Morgan looked over to where JJ was speaking with Daisy. “But she wants to stay with us.” 

“None of us have the pull to make that happen.” Emily hated playing devil’s advocate. But it needed to be done. 

His features hardened. “Then we make sure she knows she has a place to come back to.” 

They both fell silent staring at the damage to the front of the van. 

“Are you still going to work out with her?” Emily asked. 

He chuffed. “Well I’m clearly never going to beat her. Christ, does this mean the CIA just has secret agent versions of WWII Captain America? Cause that would have been nice to know about.” 

“I don’t know, what I’d heard about it made it sound like ghost stories. But then someone is always trying to recreate the super serum every few years.” Emily ran a hand through her hair. “First Stark in that ridiculous suit of his and now this.” 

Morgan rubbed the back of his head. “It’s turning into a crazy world out there.” 

“Does this mean we might get an unsub that’s..powered up?” Emily wanted to chew her nails, but that would taste terrible. Because Daisy had gotten her that nail polish. “So who’s going to tell Hotch?” 

Morgan took a step back. “Oh, that’s all you, Prentiss.” 

////

Reid’s fingers twitched as Daisy pulled him towards the barber shop. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure you need an iron. Look, most of talking to a girl is a bit of confidence. And nothing helps with that like a nice haircut. But for realsies you need an iron for your shirts. The sweater vest thing is cute, but iron your shirts dude.” Daisy caught his hand and swung their now joined hands as they walked down the street. 

He wasn’t really sure what to do about that. A beautiful girl was holding his hand there wasn’t… what was he supposed to do? He wasn’t used to people like her not caring if anyone mistook them for more than friends. Girls didn’t like being paired with him. But she clearly didn’t care and it baffled him. “Uh…”

“And honestly, the nerd thing works for you. Smart, well groomed, and a bit quirky. You’d have dates if you bothered to ask. But most girls wait for the guy to ask. It’s stupid, but, well. it’s a thing. I’m sure your profiler head knows more about it than me.” 

Reid gaped. “But girls don’t...I ramble?” 

“Believe me, the rambling is cute. There was this girl, super cute and nerdy, super smart. I’d have considered dating her if she hadn’t of clearly been head over heels for her nerdy science partner. Which is why we’re going to an exclusive viewing of newly found war footage at the Smithsonian. I have expert intel saying the curator is cute, and has an IQ matching yours.” Daisy grinned, completely ignoring that people might see that they were holding hands. 

Reid tightened his hand in hers and caused them to stop. “Are you just doing this because you’re leaving for a new assignment coming up?” 

Daisy cocked her head as she looked at him. “Doing what?” 

“Being nice to me.” He could feel himself heating up at admitting that. 

She softened. “Reid, I like you, and I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to anymore. And what’s this about me leaving?” 

“Your behavior has been overly conciliatory and ingratiating. Typical behavior when preparing to leave and wishing to have done so on good terms.” Reid’s eyes flicked across her face. “You’re not leaving?” 

Daisy crossed her arms. “I’m not leaving, though I do have a secondary assignment that will mean I won’t be with the team all the time. I’d only be leaving a couple of times a year. The Director and I agree that I can’t keep taking missions as I was.” Her mouth pulled to the side. “I didn’t like it at first. But this team is growing on me. And it helps that your death toll is far lower than my old team.” 

“Death toll?” He squeaked.

She sighed. “One agent turned traitor and after a lot of effort was killed. Idaho and Hartly died on the job. And Hartly didn’t go easy. Yo-yo lost both of her arms. Agent Coulson was… he lost an arm, was stabbed in the heart, blown up, at this point the fact he’s alive is a miracle. Mack lost his daughter. May will have a permanent limp. Jemma and Fitz are hiding in a literal castle fitted out with state of art security. Doesn’t change Fitz’s brain damage. Trip was killed in action. Bobbie was so horrifically tortured she spent a year on light duty before leaving the organization. Mace was...he was crushed by a building that came down on top of him while he tried to get the children out. Lincoln-” Her voice caught. “Died stopping a biological weapon. I could keep going. The point is this team? This team is safe.” 

“That’s…” Reid ached at the clear pain painted across Daisy’s face. 

Daisy tipped her chin up. “The death rate for my field is 80%. I’ve survived eight years, Reid. My… it was the right call to get me out.” 

Reid felt stupid. It wasn’t that Daisy was leaving, she was just used to her team leaving her. Of course she ensured the team was constantly taken care of. It was trauma, not guilt. “I’m sorry.” 

“It was the life we chose.” Daisy stepped to the side slightly. “Come on, I made an appointment at the barber for you and everything.” 

He touched his hair, though the serious mood persisted. “Are they going to cut it all off?” 

“Whatever you want, but at least get rid of some of those dead ends.” Daisy lightened slightly and hooked her arm through his. “Michaels wouldn’t shut up about my hair if that counts as corroborating evidence that a haircut will help your cause.” 

He blinked at the reminder of the Agent from IA. “You invited him to work out with you.” 

“Have you seen him wandering past the BAU since then?” Daisy smirked as she looked at him smugly. 

Reid frowned. “But if he’s given up on you, who left those flowers on your desk yesterday?” 

“Sharon from white collar crimes.” She gave a considered look. “Which she’s cute, if she wasn’t a bitch I’d consider her at least for a hookup. Sadly, she described my looks as exotic, and asked if I felt safe working with Morgan.”

Reid stiffened in offense. “Morgan has saved my life sixteen times.” 

“Don’t worry, she’s being audited by the IRS, has a credit score under 250 and I added her phone number to a fake phone sex site.” Daisy whistled as if that wasn’t horrifying. 

Reid looked at her again. “How many agents is that now?”

“Four, I’m a reasonably hot newbie, and you FBI guys are way workaholics who need to get out more. It's not actually that indicative of my hotness level that I’ve been approached. And they went about it wrong. You on the other hand are going to do far better than my idiot suitors and get a girl to at least talk to you. Now as a gentleman I do believe you owe me conversation?” 

Reid wished he knew more about conversation and wasn’t afraid of bringing up the fates of the other two agents who’d failed to ask Daisy out.… “In the mid 1960s the CIA used a 4.5 milimeter, single shot weapon that fit inside of a lipstick container.” 

“Cold war facts?” Daisy perked up. “Tell me more Boy Wonder.” 

////

Garcia’s eyes widened as she realized she had just flipped Daisy down onto the mats. “Oh my goodness, did I really do that?!” 

“That was perfect!” Daisy bounced up to her feet. “Come on try again, feet about a half inch further apart.” 

Garcia intellectually knew that Daisy was a terrifying field agent. It just didn’t feel like it during their lunches in the gym. “Are you sure I didn’t hurt you?” 

“I’m fine. Although if you do this maneuver fast enough on someone who doesn’t go with it you can rip their arm out of their socket. Which is the point. Disable your attacker so they can’t chase after you.” Daisy tapped her shoulder and elbow. “Go for the joints, they’re the easiest to injure with the least amount of strength.” 

She nodded. “Larynx, instep groin, flip.” 

“And then stamp on the throat,” Daisy added on. 

Garcia paused. “Wouldn’t that kill the person?” 

“They can’t hurt you if you’ve snapped their neck.” Daisy tilted her head slightly like she didn’t understand what was horrifying about that. 

She breathed in, she remembered the terror she’d felt at being shot by Colby. Some light throat stomping might not be such a bad thing. 

Garcia sipped at her post workout boba. “So what do you think of the whole Stark thing?” 

“He’s a flaming asshole but a hero. A messed up one who needs to be slapped a few times, and be forced to watch the entire Terminator series.” Daisy sipped her own drink. “What about you?” 

She laughed. “He’s handsome, rich, and brilliant.” Garcia sighed. “What I’d give to get my hands on his biceps. Yum.” 

“His hacking isn’t even that good. You’re better than him.” Daisy grinned suddenly. “My ideal threesome would be me between Captain America and Peggy Carter.” 

Garcia made a deep humming sound. “Hot.” She chuckled. “I did have you pegged as bi, nice to be proven right.” 

“Eh, I never bothered defining it.” Daisy rolled her straw between her fingers. “But yeah bi works. So what gave it away?” 

She snorted. “Please Terminator, you’re way too punk to be totally straight.” 

“What about you ‘Sugar Doll’?” Daisy wiggled her eyebrows. 

Garcia laid a hand on Daisy’s shoulder. “Oh Terminator I’m afraid men are too delicious for me to stray to the fairer side.” 

Daisy giggled into her tea. 

She groaned as both of their phones went off. “That’s not good.” 

“Lunch was almost over anyways,” Daisy smirked. “And you can get your flirt on with Morgan.” 

Garcia raised a finger at Daisy. “Nuh uh. Do not go there.” 

“Oh I get it, your relationship is very special.” Daisy looked completely unrepentant as she stepped backwards. 

“Oh you!” 

Garica stabbed her fluffy pen towards Daisy. “Don’t touch my babies.” 

“I’m bored!” Daisy whined. 

She looked away from her screens. “Why don’t you go help Prentiss and JJ?” 

“I’m not helpful with the profile stuff. And sitting in a courtroom like Reid, Morgan and Hotch. And legal mumbo jumbo not my thing. There’s no chasing people down, checking perimeters, they have the unsub.” 

Garcia grabbed the remains of boba tea out of Daisy’s hands and dropped it in the trash can. “No, you, out of my palace of solitude. Go do research for some of the open cases on someone’s desk. But I can't work with you here. Out!” 

Daisy stuck out her lower lip. “Fine.” 

“Out.” She pointed at the door. 

Daisy slid to her feet like some sort of cat. “Fine, you work out your first take down and you’re just bossy all over the place.” 

“Don’t make me tell you again Terminator. You’re cute but not that cute.” Garcia ordered. 

Daisy held up her hands as she stepped out the door. “I’m wounded.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Garcia rolled her eyes and swiveled back to her computers. So back to finding more evidence for the case.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've got a job interview lined up, so fingers crossed.

Daisy popped a bubble of gum as she started setting up her laptop. “This system needs to be updated.” 

“It’s still being implemented?” The officer sitting next to Garcia said dryly. “It’s brand new.” 

She stared at the system. “That actually hurts me.” 

“Hush you.” Garcia chided as she pulled out her laptop. “Not all of us are CIA super secret agents.” 

The officer snapped around. “CIA?” 

“Don’t worry sugar, Terminator here is one of the good ones.” Garcia assured the cop. 

The woman startled. “Lisa Bartleby.” 

“Penelope Garcia, and Terminator over there is Daisy Coulson.” Garcia tossed a cord at Daisy. “Be nice.” She smiled at Bartleby. “May we?” 

“Of course.” Bartleby bounced slightly with nerves as she waved at the computer station. She looked between Garcia and Daisy. “I uh, hardly ever get visitors.” 

Garcia flipped open her own laptop. “You’ll hardly know I’m here.” 

“That’s a lie.” Daisy snickered while dropping a giant tub of red vines on the desk. “Don’t worry Bartleby, we’ll upgrade your crib while we’re here in payment for annoyance.” Her face scrunched as she looked around the dark and depressing room. “And get you some sunlamps and posters or something. Like this place is bleak.” 

Garcia spoke up before Daisy could start on the fact she was fairly sure she smelled mildew. “What’s your operating system?” 

“Uh, Linux OS with 6 gigs of RAM.” Bartleby startled slightly. 

Garcia clicked into the system. “And a dual quad core 3 gigahertz processor, with a GeFORCE 8800 Ultra extreme VID card. And a CISCO ASA 5500 Firewall.” 

“Yeah.” Bartleby nodded as she pushed her hands into her pockets. 

Garcia slapped Daisy before she could say anything about how that set up physically pained her, no wonder she’d hacked government shit like it was swiss cheese as a kid. “Bitchin. How many cameras?” 

Bartleby looked amused as Daisy pouted while shoving a redvine in her mouth. “4,468 not including the ones that only run in the housing projects.” 

“And all the footage is stored?” Garcia checked.

“Catalogued and digitized,” Bartleby replied with the confidence of someone who’d done the work themselves. 

Garcia’s fingers flew across her keyboard. “Beautiful. ‘Cause my boss man wants me to send him a file. So he can run facial recognition software on each of the crime scenes.” 

“Um, I’ve already enhanced all of the photos as much as I can.” Bartleby frowned. 

Garcia eased the woman quickly. “No, I’m talking about using it on the crowd immediately after the shooting. This is icky, but these creeps, they sometimes like to come back and watch the police deal with their handiwork. And viola.” 

“You’re doing good Bartleby.” Daisy tossed a can of sprite at the woman, based off her purchasing history it was her favorite drink. “I’ll even get you a new chair after all this. Like the department clearly undervalues you.” 

Barleby’s dark cheeks heated as she took her seat. “So uh, what do we do now?” 

“We watch cameras. Run some programs trying to look for repetition or clues. And I order us a lot of takeout.” Daisy stared at the actual cement blocks of retired computers on the shelves. “The tech here pains me. We had a holographic table in my last office.” 

Garcia whacked her. 

“Ow!” 

Daisy looked up from her laptop and tuned into the conversation Garcia and Bartleby were having. Bartlebe was holding a wind up turtle that Garcia had just plonked on the desk. “This isn’t exactly regulation.” 

“Well, then thank god it’s only us in here.” Garcia gave a cheeky wink at Bartleby. 

Daisy chuckled as Bartleby set the turtle down. “So who wants chinese?” 

Daisy frowned as she spotted the height readouts of the program Garcia had been running. She’d been busy upgrading the processing speed and cleaning up photo quality of the crowd shots, it took her a moment. “Fuck.” 

“What?” Garcia looked away from the numbers and then back. “I know it’s weird. I’ll let Hotch know we have...something.” 

“You have terrorism or gang initiation,” Daisy replied, closing her laptop and stuffing it in her shoulder bag and slinging it over one shoulder. “I need to get to the station. Tell Hotch I’m on my way.” 

Bartleby’s face scrunched up in confusion. “Wait, why are you leaving?” 

“Because they’ll want me down there now.” Daisy paused and sighed. “I got recruited after I got caught as one of the founding members of a domestic terrorist organization. It’s all classified but essentially I had a choice. A dark hole I wouldn’t come out of alive or sign up and get a badge. If they want to profile this person I have a feeling I’m going to be being asked a lot of questions.” She frowned looking at the map of attacks. “But if I had to say, distraction.” 

Garcia’s voice was quiet. “Distraction?” 

“Murder isn’t big enough if you want to make a statement.” Daisy’s jaw tightened. “You two stay safe. Do not get in any cars you haven’t run surveillance cameras on for the last hour. And lock the door after I leave. If I was running an attack I’d want to make the police afraid next.” 

Garcia nodded. “You stay safe Terminator.” 

“I’ll be fine. I’m a Terminator right?” Daisy smiled.

////

Morgan was barely keeping it together as he tried to find his team. 

“Morgan!” Daisy came careening nearly into him, one hand grabbing his shoulder. “It’s Hotch.” 

His head snapped to the hunched form over a body a block down the street. He couldn’t argue, he could hear Hotch screaming for help. Morgan turned to the officer in charge. “You gotta let us through. He’s my boss, never leave a man behind. You know that.” 

“The target is first responders, no one goes in until the scene is secure.” The man braced himself. “Get off my crime scene or I’ll have you removed.” 

Daisy grabbed the man’s bullet proof vest and physically lifted him four inches off the ground with one arm. “Get out of our way or I will move you.” 

The man fought uselessly at her arm before nodding. “It’s your funeral!” 

Daisy dropped him with a short nod. And then took off down the street. Morgan was hot on her heels. They both came skidding to Hotch’s side, where he was bent over Kate Joyner, the head of the New York FBI office. 

Morgan paled as he realized Hotch’s hand was in her, holding something closed. “We’re going to get you out.” 

“Fuck.” Daisy ripped open her messenger bag and yanked what looked like a thing of cheese wiz only green. “Artery bleed?” 

Hotch’s head moved wrong somehow, a certain lull. “I’m holding it closed.” 

“Ok, Hotch when I tell you to, you’re going to let go of it and get your hand out.” Daisy looked down at Kate, nervously wetting her lips. “Hey Kate, you’re gonna be ok. And you’re going to go back to giving me dirty looks. Dirtier even cause I’m not gonna lie, this is going to hurt really, really bad.” 

Morgan flicked his eyes to the can and then Daisy’s face. “It’ll work?” 

“It’s experimental, but it’ll stop the bleeding.” She grabbed Hotch’s shoulder while holding Morgan’s eyes. “When I say ‘now’ Hotch you pull your hand out, Morgan hold her down. This stuff feels like hellfire in your veins.” 

He nodded sharply, one of his hands spreading wide across Kate’s sternum, the woman was barely clinging to consciousness. 

Daisy sucked in a breath. “Now.” 

Hotch slid his hand out.

Daisy pressed the can in and it started to fizz. 

Kate’s eyes widened and the screaming started. 

Daisy aimed her tranq gun at Kate and before either of them could stop her she fired. She holstered her gun. “We needed to know it was working, she didn’t need to go through it.” 

Morgan panted, pulling his hands back. “Ok, ok.” He grabbed his phone, realizing it had been ringing. “Baby girl, I got Hotch but listen to me. You gotta get somebody down here soon. Daisy just did something but I don’t think that’s going to last.”

-”The kid is the bomber!”-

His head snapped up to the young kid who’d gotten out of their way when he and Daisy had crashed into the situation. “You’re absolutely sure?” 

-”I’m sure. We watched him do it.”-

Morgan hung up and looked down at where Hotch was feeling Kate’s pulse. “Hotch. The kid. He’s the bomber.” 

Hotch looked between Daisy and Morgan. “Go, I’ve got her go.” 

And then they were off running down the kid. Their feet hitting the pavement hard as they half flew towards him. Morgan absently noted running with Daisy had made him faster, he still wasn’t as fast as her. 

They came around a corner and then Daisy was tackling the unsub into an alley. 

Morgan was pulling out his cuffs as he finally felt like he could breathe. An unsub could be interrogated, they had something. He frowned though as he saw Daisy yanking the kid up to his feet. He jolted as she tossed him further down the alley. “Hey, we got him.” 

“We don’t have time to do this your way.” Daisy glared at the kid. 

He grabbed her shoulder. “No.” 

“There is a major terrorist attack in the works. And if I was in charge of this cell I wouldn’t have told this schmuck more than what he needed to do. We don’t have time to question him.” Daisy’s bearing was horribly calm. 

The kid’s eyes widened slightly. “You think this is going to scare me pigs?”

“We don’t torture people.” Morgan pulled her attention back to him. 

Her eyes narrowed. “I do.” 

“Seriously?” The kid’s back hit the wall of the alley, eyes slightly panicky now as he clearly realized Daisy was serious. 

Daisy grabbed Morgan’s wrist. “I’m not FBI, and we both know I outrank you Morgan. I get five minutes with him and then you can integrate him. But he’s mine first.” 

////

Emily holstered her gun as she took in the garage. She swallowed as she saw Daisy just sitting there, on the end of the ambulance. “What’s your status?” 

“Your bomber is tranqed and in the corner over there.” She pointed to a slumped figure to one side. “The bomb isn’t a threat any more.” 

She tapped her radio. “Bomber is incapacitated.” Emily pulled out her handcuffs and made her way to the bomber. She saw the now familiar blue veins on his visible skin. Snapping the cuffs onto his wrists she grabbed him under the armpits and dragged him a few feet over into the light. 

Daisy dropped from the top of the ambulance to the ground. “The rest of the team should be here soon.”

“Daisy, what happened?” Emily approached her slowly. Something was fundamentally off. “Are you ok?” 

She huffed. “I’m fine. Not used to the aftermath of these operations. Do you think it makes me a monster that if Derek hadn’t of stopped me, I would have broken every bone in that kid’s body?” 

“I think it means you are trained for very different situations than this.” Emily approached her team member slowly. There was a resignedness to Daisy that was disturbing, a stillness. “And you didn’t hurt him, you got the information you needed to come and stop a bomb that would have killed thousands of people.” 

“I wouldn’t have regretted it if I’d tortured him. All these unsubs of yours I’ve tranqed, I wouldn’t have regretted killing them. What does that make me?” She turned fully to Emily. “I’ve always been a monster, daughter of monsters, but I never thought I was turning into them.” 

Emily grabbed Daisy and hauled her into a hug. She gripped her tightly. “You’re not a monster. I promise you that.” She held on, ignoring as other law enforcement and Rossi arrived. Hotch, blood splatter still on his face, right behind Rossi. But it wasn’t just them. 

She glanced as the seat of the ambulance opened and the swearing started. Emily could see why. The bomb had exploded, but the walls of the seat didn’t have so much as soot on them. She winced, so many questions, the clear enhanced strength, the green foam Hotch had mentioned, and now whatever fresh fuckery this was. Working with Daisy was going to turn her into a conspiracy nut at this point. 

“So it’s all about to get super classified?” Emily forced a chuckle. 

Daisy nodded, running a hand through her hair, dark horrific bruising showing on her arms. “I get why they didn’t want me in counter terrorism now.” 

“This is your normal.” Emily considered the effects of that. “Threats this size are what you’re used to.” 

She snorted. “Bigger most of the time really. This would be a basic one. We never had time to do things...well the right way.” 

“But you didn’t torture that kid.” Emily held onto Daisy’s upper arm. “You didn’t kill the bomber, you haven’t killed any of our unsubs. You prefer to tranq even if you wouldn’t regret killing them you don’t. Because you know it would be wrong.” 

Daisy’s face looked...confused. “What does that even mean?” 

“That you care far more than people with your background, little as I know about it, should. You are a good person.” Emily felt the rightness of that, it was true. Daisy may be a walking disaster of repressed rage and violence. But even here, where the stakes were high and if she’d truly used that violence there wouldn’t have been consequences, she hadn’t done it. 

Daisy nodded before pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes. “I just...it was never from this perspective.” 

“I get it, I really do.” Emily didn’t let go of the other woman’s arm. “There are missions and situations where you break the rules and sometimes you even start to forget there are rules. But you still choose mercy every time. That’s who you are.” 

Daisy let out a startled huff of amusement. “Fuck, I’m sorry. I should probably have listened to that joke of a psychiatrist they made me see.” 

“What are friends for?” Emily felt the tension easing in her shoulders. “Now come on, you’re not leaving me with all of this paperwork, even if it does get classified to hell and back.” 

Daisy nodded sharply, her composure snapping back into place piece by piece. “Right, yeah paperwork.” 

“Do I want to know how you stopped that explosion?” Emily asked while giving Daisy a few more precious seconds to pull herself together. 

Daisy’s lips twitched. “Would you believe me if I said I was an alien?” 

“No.” Emily paused. “Wait, Daisy?”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a crazy day tomorrow starting in the wee hours and I'm not figuring out how to post from my phone. Congrats, this is Wednesday's chapter like twelve hours early.

Morgan dropped a sealed bottle of green tea from the vending machine into Daisy’s lap. “You doing ok down there?” He looked down at where she was sitting on the stairs leading up to the precinct. 

“Peachy.” She gave him a faint smile before opening up the bottle and taking a sip. 

He sighed. “If I asked, would you tell me how you stopped that bomb? Cause the bomb crew is still scratching their heads. And I have to say, I’ve never seen anything like it.” He gave her arms a pointed look. God was he actually considering she had absorbed the explosion? Cause that was what the facts were pointing at. Reid was researching Captain America’s serum on a kindle right now. The kid hated Kindles. Truly, desperate times had been reached. 

Daisy looked up at the skyline. “Six months.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “In six months I’ll answer anything you want.” 

“That’s not ominous at all.” He hooked his thumbs through the loops of his pants. “We still on for our morning run tomorrow?” 

She unfolded, standing with that cat like grace she showed when she wasn’t paying attention. “I was thinking just a warm up run. There’s a new rock climbing gym I’ve been meaning to check out. I’ll pay for admittance if you wanna join in?” 

Morgan winced, fuck. But damned if their hellish workouts didn’t visibly help settle her demons every morning. He wasn’t an idiot, the dark circles she showed up with some mornings, how it took her different amounts of time to start teasing him for lagging. She needed it, and well it was making him faster. “Fine, but if I can’t move my arms you’re helping with my paperwork.” 

“Deal.” She smirked at him with a knowing glint. “Get a good night’s sleep, you’re going to need it Derek.” 

“Did you just first name me?” Morgan shivered dramatically. “Your workouts aren’t that hellish.” 

They really were. 

Daisy just laughed, laying her hand on his arm and squeezing. “See you back in Virginia slow poke.” 

“Here I am, being a good guy, driving Hotch back. I even got you your gross leaf juice.” He shook his head. “See if I don’t unleash my Babygirl on you for that.” 

Daisy snicked, her hand falling off his arm. “Please, girl code. You may be a ‘sexy beast’” She put her hands up in a mockery of quotation marks. “But you’re the eyecandy. I’m her hacking sister.” 

“Cold! You’re cold, stealing my Hot Mama.” He chuckled as he watched her heading inside. 

She threw a look over her shoulder. “Maybe you should man up and win her back from Kevin then?” Daisy winked before letting the door close behind her. 

He shook his head with a huff. Turning he made his way to where the SUV and Hotch were waiting. Now he just had the whole drive from New York to Virginia to drive Hotch up a wall. He was a good team member.

Morgan kept his eyes on the road as he drove them southbound. “Not going to ask my opinion on agent Coulson?” 

“It’s clear you support her actions.” Hotch’s permanent frown was likely deepening. 

He tapped his finger against the top of the wheel. “What’s got you in a snit then?” 

“She’s not going to be reassigned.” Hotch sounded tired. 

Morgan’s teeth felt on edge. “With her abilities? No way any department just lets an agent like that sit around on a profiling team.” 

“She’d started running suicide missions.” Hotch’s voice was cold. “You’re right, she's too valuable to lose. And better they pull her for four or five missions a year and leave her with us the rest of the time. This assignment is permanent.” 

Morgan risked a quick glance at Hotch. “She’s on the team?” 

“She’s on our team.” Hotch’s mouth formed a rarely there ghost of a smile. “Ideas on getting her into therapy?” 

Morgan considered that, he didn’t question the relief. “She’ll seek out help herself.” He knew Emily and him would be keeping an eye on her though. The PTSD she had bubbling under the surface was starting to peek out. “You say I don’t trust you to have my back 100% of the time. But I think I trust her to.” 

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Hotch fell silent again. 

Morgan settled back into driving. He didn’t trust easily. But Daisy had stopped, because he’d asked. And he knew she would cross any line for their team. There was nothing that would stop her. It was terrifying to think about. She wasn’t going to be reassigned though. Which was good, she needed the team as much as he was starting to think they needed her. He reached down, turning up the radio. 

////

Daisy stirred at the sauce while Rossie chopped, she no longer had chopping privileges after the mincing incident. “How does one find a therapist?” 

“A good start might be referring to them without sheer disgust,” Rossi remarked while tossing some more garlic into the pot she was stirring. “I have some names.” 

She bit at her lower lip. “My last therapist I actually talked to tried to murder me so it’s probably better if you just give me one name.” 

Rossi made a choking noise. “Life hasn’t been fair to you.” He started to fill the pasta pot with water. 

“It wasn’t fair to you either.” Daisy remembered the single mention in his file of a son who didn’t make it. 

He hummed setting the pot on the oven and picking up the salt grinder. “No it hasn’t.” Rossi salted the water with practiced motions. “Are you willing to put in the work therapy will require of you?” 

“I have to be if I don’t want to be a risk to the team.” Daisy kept stirring, keeping the sauce from burning. “And I don’t want to be controlled by it either.” 

Rossi elbowed her over so he could salt the sauce. “Then you’re ready to work on it. Though in my humble opinion you’d be a risk to yourself, not the team.” 

“If you say so.” She didn’t see a point in explaining Inhuman powers and their associated risk when the Inhuman was as powerful as she was. “Do you think Hotch will be back anytime soon?” 

Rossi gave her a look. “He got blown up, give him a few weeks before he threatens a doctor into signing the papers to let him back in the field.” 

“So what I’m hearing is check his medical files for the notes so we can make sure he actually follows his doctor’s suggestions?” Daisy grinned. 

He huffed in amusement. “That is highly illegal.” Rossi winked. “I won’t say a word. Though perhaps you should take your own doctor’s advice.” He gave a pointed look at her bruising that was starting to fade after a few days though. 

“I just burst a lot of capillaries, no fractures. I got x-rayed.” She shrugged, not worrying about her clearly visible arms with the tank top she was wearing. It got hot over the stove as designated stirrer. 

Rossi gave a slow nod of acceptance. “Now, how much pasta do you think?”

Daisy dropped the italian pasta lunch on top of JJ’s casefile she was looking at. “Eat, I mean I just got back from lunch with Garcia. Which means you really should not be in the same place as when I left.” 

“I’m not sure if the whole team should go out for this one or not.” JJ admitted. 

Daisy scooped up the file. “Eat, I’ll look it over.” She flicked her eyes across it, an arson case, a homeless man had gotten caught in a blaze two days ago. No signs of purposefully harming people, but the fires were escalating and the damage was significant. 

JJ groaned as she took her first bite. “What is this?” 

“It’s good right? And I have no idea.” Daisy chuckled, pleased that JJ was actually eating. She glanced at the photos. “We’re on standby with Hotch gone. Why not just send Reid and Emily to go work out a profile? It’s not one of ours, but we could spare the manpower. And two agents going down is easier to justify to the higher ups over an arson case.” 

JJ’s brow’s furrowed. “If we start breaking up the team, they might start expecting us to do that more often.” 

“Maybe, but since we’re missing our unit chief they might not see it as a sign of something our team should be doing long term.” Daisy closed the file and passed it back. “That’s my advice anyways.” 

JJ nodded, clearly considering it as she chewed. “Please don’t stop learning to cook from Rossi.” 

“Don’t worry, it’s a life skill I’d like to have.” Daisy dropped onto the couch. Picking up her laptop she pulled up her research on the latest cold case she’d been handed. 

JJ looked over at her curiously. “How was your first therapy session?” 

Daisy snickered. “Poor lady asked about that scar on my neck as an easy opener. She was hyperventilating and we ended a bit early.” She rolled her eyes. “She seems nice though, definitely never been out in the field though.” 

“Your psychiatrist hyperventilated after one story?” JJ stared at her in horror. 

She considered that. “I mean I gave a brief run down of my background too so...maybe it was a bit of both?” 

“The brief run down?” JJ’s was looking at her in disbelief. 

Daisy shrugged. “It is what it is.” She considered what to say. “Enough about my poor therapist, what have you been doing with all the new down time with Hotch gone?” 

“I wouldn’t call it down time.” JJ opened up a new file. 

Daisy hopped up, and snagged the file out of JJ’s hands. “No, you’re taking a break before you have to join me in therapy.” 

“You’re lucky I need you.” JJ’s eyes were narrowed as she took a particularly vicious bite of her lunch. 

She rolled her eyes. “Have you considered getting an assistant?” 

“I thought that’s what you were.” JJ grinned at her. 

Daisy dropped the file back to it’s stack before dropping back to the couch. “I’ve been thinking of volunteering with organized crime. No offense to your serial killers but I’m getting out of practice with field work.” 

“You think they’d just let you drop in? FBI interference isn’t appreciated by locals.” JJ rolled her eyes. “Half my job is soothing egos” 

Daisy picked up her captain america mug of coffee and sipped at it. “I always found kicking the biggest toughest guy’s ass to be the quickest way to make the rest listen to you seriously.” 

“Not all of us are ninjas.” JJ replied dryly. She softened. “How’re the arms?” 

She blinked. “I don’t get why you’re all so concerned. But they’re fine, mostly green bruises now. Give it another couple days and you won’t be able to see them.” Daisy grinned as she spotted JJ setting her fork down. Victory. 

Daisy cringed as she saw the bouquet on her desk. “Morgan, please say that’s from you?” She could hear the whine in her voice. 

He sniggered into his case file. “Nope, want to share with the class?” 

“Was it Michaels again?” Daisy picked up the bouquet cautiously, her nose wrinkling. God the FBI offices were full of desperate people. 

Emily let out a full on snort. 

She winced at the frilly pink card stock. “Fuck.” 

Both of the assholes burst out into laughter at her predicament. To be fair Emily had had her turn at having to get rid of the man herself. But still, assholes.

“Can I just superplex him? Is that ethical? Cause this is not charming.” Daisy grumbled. 

////

Reid stood with the others in Garcia’s lair. “Why are we watching this?” 

“Because Michaels is a pretentious ass and watching him get his ass kicked will make my week.” Morgan chuckled while leaning over Garcia’s shoulder. “Think he’ll show Babygirl?” 

Garcia swatted at Emily. “Oh he’ll show.” 

Reid frowned. “I don’t understand. Does he think he can actually match her?” 

“No, but he thinks he can redeem himself from the sweaty blob he was left as after trying to join in on her morning run. He wants a playful, flirty fight.” Emily explained patiently. “He doesn’t understand Daisy is sick of him.” Her voice dropped to a mutter. “More like the female population of Quantico is sick of him.”

Reid glanced at the agent in question as he entered the gym on screen. He wasn’t in bad shape, but he was starting to develop a bit of a tummy. “Even if she wasn’t enhanced, her workout regime would put her in the top 10% of athletes.”

“Five dollars says she ends it in the first thirty seconds.” Morgan offered. 

Garcia clucked her tongue. “Sucker’s bet Hot Sauce, she’s going to humiliate him.”

“Oh! Yes I’ll take that bet.” Reid pushed his hands into his pockets. 

Morgan looked at him with a chuckle. “Alright Pretty Boy, let’s make it twenty.” 

Reid hummed, he was winning that bet. He bounced slightly as they watched Michaels make a lazy right hook at Daisy. 

She grabbed his arm, and then literally flipped over him, then swept his legs before hopping back. 

“Finish him!” Morgan called at the screen. 

JJ patted him on the shoulder in sympathy. “Men who don’t take ‘no’ for an answer are a plague. She’s doing the rest of us a favor.” 

Michaels had managed to finally clamber to his feet. He came in with an actual attempt at punching her then. 

Daisy snapped his arm to one side, and then kicked him in the gut sending him three feet back, doubling over in pain. 

“How many times do you think she’ll let him keep standing up?” JJ asked as Micheals hit his knees while clearly wheezing. 

Emily hummed. “I say he tries an actual charge this time and she puts him down hard.”

And sure enough the man climbed back to his feet, his body language all rage before he charged at Daisy. 

She literally jumped over his hunched over charge. And turned grinning, waiting for his next move. 

Reid couldn’t hear what was going on, but in the next twenty seconds he watched Michaels suffer a knee to the crotch so hard it physically lifted him from the ground, being flipped in such a way he was pretty sure it had hyper extended something in the man’s shoulder, as he was slammed into the mats. 

He turned to Morgan. “Pay up.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Sorry for not replying to any of your comments yesterday. I read them and was delighted but didn't have time to respond. But in excellent news I got a job! And quite frankly it's a job I'm going to enjoy way more than my last one. So just so much excellence. But I'll be working with children with learning disabilities and god I prefer kids to adults any day of the week. Also way more personally fulfilling than cellphone tech support. But I had a final interview and an on the job working interview today. Got to help with some school work, learned about a snowman math game and was informed my attempt at 'the floss' was very silly. Also apparently my ability to wait a tantrum out without blinking an eye is impressive. An eight yearold having a fit because he wants a snack and not to do his word search work sheets has nothing on a grown man screaming at you for an hour because he can't find the speaker phone button on the call screen. So now I just get to do new hire paperwork and wait on a background check to come back. Also update my CPR licence.

JJ waved as she spotted Emily and Garcia already sitting at a table outside the little breakfast place. “Sorry I’m late!” 

“It’s alright sweetie we haven’t ordered yet.” Garcia giggled into her mimosa. 

She pulled out her chair while taking off her blazer. “Daisy isn’t here yet?” 

“Not yet, but she was working on a cold case and said something about ‘stupid, idiot cops who couldn’t turn on a light if you put their hand on the switch’ when I called her this morning.” Emily was amused as she tapped her mimosa against Garcia’s. “I almost feel bad for the officers whose cold cases we’ve been handing her.” 

JJ sighed as she accepted her own mimosa from the waiter. She shared a look with the others. “I see why we’re trying this place this week.” 

“What can I say, good food, and some nice eye candy on the side.” Garcia wiggled her eyebrows while sipping at her mimosa. 

Emily was relaxed, one arm outstretched. “Don’t worry, I made her check the latest health inspections.” 

“It's an algorithm of brunch love.” Garcia puffed up. “And have I led you wrong yet?” 

Emily laughed. “No, and eye candy appreciated. I’ve begun my future as a cat lady.”

“There was a stray cat on top of my car. I think they sense I’m without a man.” JJ took a slightly morose sip of her mimosa. 

Garcia let out a long, beleaguered sigh. “I think I might be joining you both soon. Things with Kevin have been….” 

“No! Not you too?” Emily reached for the pitcher and started topping them all off. “What happened?” 

Garcia pushed her glasses up. “Daisy keeps pointing out that I’m settling. And she’s right. He turned off the electricity to my apartment so we could have a romantic dinner but didn’t tell me. I almost had a heart attack and he blamed it on stress but… he knows what we do.” 

“Cutting the power is a typical marker of an organized unsub.” Emily pointed out. “If it had been one of us he’d have gotten shot.” 

JJ pushed her hair back. “You deserve better than that.” She slumped slightly, it was nice to be out of the office, to be social with other women who got it. “The dating pool at the bureau is more of a lukewarm kiddy pool.” 

“Amen.” Emily intoned solemnly “God, and Micheals is practically enough to ward one off forever. I had to turn him down four times.” 

JJ smirked. “It was good to see Daisy suplex the man.” 

“He’s definitely on the shallow end of the gene pool.” Garcia sipped at her drink. “If I could dream, I’d want someone just capable of being thoughtful. Bring you lunch, make you dinner, sweet things like that.” 

“Cheers to that.” JJ sighed considering the thought. “Someone who is willing to understand our work schedule.” 

“Emotional maturity higher than a grade schooler.” Emily added before huffing. “And you know if we’re describing the unicorn of men, confidence is hot.” 

JJ laughed as she finished her second mimosa. “I was always too worried about image, but bad boys always did it for me. Like the leather, devil may care attitude. I had posters in highschool.” 

“No! Pray tell whom did you have posters of on your walls?” Garcia leaned forward clapping her hands. 

JJ shook her head with a laugh. “Nope.” 

“She’s got a point, I've dated a few ‘bad boys’.” Emily sighed. “So hot, so little emotional maturity, no responsibility.” She let out a wistful sound. “Why do men have to stop growing up in high school…..” 

Garcia sniggered before perking up. “Speaking of bad boys.” She looked pointedly down the road. 

JJ and Emily followed her gaze and they spotted exactly what she was talking about. A motorcyclist in a leather jacket, distressed jeans, and riding a truly sexy motorcycle was driving up the road towards them. JJ paused in her admiration as the bike pulled up curbside and the rider parked, and then pulled her helmet off. 

Daisy shook her hair out as she sat straddling her bike. 

“Why did god curse me to be straight?” Emily groaned. “I mean look at her. No wonder half the single population of Quantico has taken a pass. She’s even voluntarily in therapy, and we all know she can cook.” 

Garcia nodded solemnly. “She’s the dating unicorn.” She giggled suddenly. “She’s even got abs, and like when she sweats she glows. It's not fair. I look like a slime monster and she looks like a goddess.” 

JJ kept staring at Daisy, her friends’ voices fading into the background because Daisy was beautiful. She was deeply attractive now that she thought about it. And she’d been...well she was everything they’d just mentioned. Thinking back she did feel warm around the other woman. 

She barely managed to smile and wave as Daisy rolled up on their table, confidence practically oozing out of her. Jesus, had she always been that hot? JJ didn’t take in much as the conversation shifted to Daisy cracking her latest cold case and how stupid it was that no one had put it together ages ago. 

In fact it washed over her as JJ found herself noticing the way the light hit Daisy’s hair, the cadence of her laughter, how her eyes squinted ever so slightly when she laughed. Fuck, she was actually physically attracted to her coworker and friend. A woman. But she wasn’t into women…. Well until this moment apparently. 

A voice that sounded suspiciously like Reid pointed out that fluidity of sexuality and that being attracted to men didn’t mean an absence of attraction to women. But really? That was… no…. right? 

If JJ almost bit her tongue off when Daisy hugged her, as they were all preparing to head their separate ways, well...probably only Emily noticed that. Hopefully not even Emily. Because fuck. What was she supposed to do with this information? This was...fuck. 

////

Morgan had never been so glad for a case in his life. Hotch’s absence had made everything feel wrong, and without him they’d all been stuck cooling their heels. To make it worse JJ had been just...off for the last two days. It was frankly weird, and if anyone let Daisy spend another day in the kitchen she was going to bury them under tupperwares of Italian food. Also the DC cops were politely begging she stop sending snarky letters along with the evidence needed to solve cold cases. 

Somehow the weirdest thing wasn’t Reid who had been dating a curator at the Smithsonian. Just hearing about their weird dates made his brain haze over in boredom. But Hotch was back, they had a case, the weirdness was going to fizzle out now that the team was back. “What’s that?” 

Everyone on the team looked to Daisy who’d just pulled out what looked like a toothpaste tube. Considering the foam from New York, they all looked at it dubiously. 

“For Hotch’s tear in his ear.” Daisy looked between them, her face painted with ‘duh’.

Hotch cleared his throat. “How do you know about that?” 

“I hacked your medical files to see if you were going to need anything to help heal.” She glanced around. “What? And this will feel funny but will help give your tear protection so it can heal and loud noises won’t cause permanent damage.” 

Morgan stared at Hotch. “Hotch? No loud noises?” 

Hotch glared before grabbing the tube from Daisy. “How much do I put in?” 

“Like just goo it.” Daisy flopped down next to Morgan. 

JJ cleared her throat and started in on the case briefing as if nothing had happened. 

Morgan stared at the prison guard as he shuffled through the fanmail the original killer had received while on death row. “What about male fans?” 

“Some yeah, freaks.” The guard derided. “This one kid would come by. Musician I think. Black clothes and eyeliner and all that. He sent Ryan his demo tape and some sheet music he wrote in his own blood.” 

He looked back at the dozens of photos of attractive women that had been mailed in. “Did you ever catch Ryan trying to smuggle anything out, to this kid or anyone else?”

“Usual problem we have is stuff being smuggled in, not out.” The guard replied unhelpfully. 

Morgan could sense something being held back. “His DNA was found at a fresh crime scene in lower Canaan.” 

“What kind of DNA we talking about?” The guard expressed some mild surprise, not enough for it to be out of nowhere. But then he’d be aware of how porous the walls of a prison could be. It wouldn’t be surprising honestly. 

Morgan kept watching. “Type of DNA that cats in lockup don’t have occasion to use.” He let out a breathe as he accepted this would be a bust based off the dumb blank look on the guard’s face. “All right. Well, listen thank you for all this, but I want to look at all your visitor logs, all right?” 

////

Emily couldn’t get the seemingly random puncture wounds on the victim’s stomachs out of her head. There was just… something about it. She set a bottle of water down in front of JJ. “You doing alright there?” 

“Yeah, it’s just been a long day.” JJ pushed her hair back as she looked up at Emily. “The media on this one is taking a life of its own.” 

She nodded. “Have they found out the body is missing?” 

“Two hours ago. The Anglemaker’s body missing from his grave, the semen in the victims, the letter. This unsub is creating a media nightmare.” JJ twisted the cap off of the bottle of water with some prejudice. 

Emily nodded slowly, copycat cases could do that. “We’ll prove it’s not him. It’s not him and we’re getting closer.” 

“That can’t come soon enough.” JJ sipped at her water. She shifted slightly. “Don’t mention the other thing.” 

She didn’t blink. “Of course, it’s none of our business, it’d be fine though.” Emily pushed her hands into her pockets. If JJ wanted to have a sexuality crisis in private, it was no one else’s business. “Get some sleep.” 

JJ nodded before pausing. “Hey Emily? Thank you.” 

Emily just gave a short nod of acknowledgment and made her way out of the house of the latest victim. It had been a long day, they’d been running scenarios while canvassing the house. They should probably have sent JJ back to the station so she had more equipment for her job. The door stayed open as she walked out, box of more evidence in her hands. She’d have to drop it off on her way to the hotel. 

Morgan was leaning against one of the supports of the awning over the small front porch. “Sky’s so clear here huh? Never see stars like this in DC.” His head was leaning back, looking up at the sky. 

“It’s beautiful.” She murmured looking up at the sky. It was one of those things, finding beauty around them while dealing with the ugliest parts of the world. 

Emily let herself enjoy the stars, her eyes falling to familiar constellations. Her brow pulled together. “Oh my God.” 

“What?” Morgan looked over at her. 

She couldn’t move her gaze now that she’d spotted it. “The puncture wounds on the victim’s stomachs represent constellations.” 

Emily walked a step behind Hotch as the Sheriff led them to the latest crime scene, the victim still alive this time. 

The sheriff briefed them as they made their way past the ambulance. “Said the suspect approached her in her driveway. Asked to use the phone to call a tow truck.” 

“She let her in the house?” Hotch asked. 

The sheriff waved a deputy off. “That’s when the suspect jumped her.” 

“That’s not our unsub’s MO.” Hotch’s mouth tightened in that frustrated expression that said he had hoped this was the end of it, but it wasn’t. 

Emily considered the facts. “Maybe she was rushing it, trying to finish off the last victim of the constellation series. Finish off the last victim.” She cut herself off, frowning as she saw the suspect in the back of the patrol car. Emily sighed. “That’s Shara.” 

“You know her?” Hotch looked over at her.

She just felt disappointed. “Shara Carlino. Rossi and I already interviewed her. She’s Ryan’s number one fan. Her alibi is solid. She’s not our unsub.” 

Emily walked away from the men, they could work out the rest. Stepping to the patrol car’s door she opened it bending down. “Shara….why?” 

“It worked for her.” She looked pitiful, the information she’d given had helped. But the cost seemed to be the cracking of this woman’s psyche. “Why not for me? I just want us to be together again” 

Emily stared at her in horror. What was there to say to that? She pulled back and shut the door.

Emily sipped at her coffee while reading the translated letters between Ryan and ‘his Dove’. It was informative, and she wasn’t able to do much while JJ bullied the media and Garcia ran birth records. She looked over at Daisy. “What are you typing away on?” 

“Running alibi checks on every female visitor Ryan had during his time on death row. I may be a ‘better’ hacker than Garcia but I’m not better at what she does. I’d get in her way.” Daisy blew a bubble of gum. 

She frowned slightly. “What does that mean?” 

“I’m one of the best in the world at getting in where people don’t want me. Means I’m pretty good at finding information. But that’s not what I focus on. Garcia, she’s the queen of finding every shred of evidence a person has left behind. And finding someone within a set of filters. You know she wrote those programs that find the unsubs herself? It’s impressive as hell. Her name wasn’t the Black Queen for nothing.” Daisy grinned. “You wouldn’t send Reid to wrestle an unsub but you sure wouldn’t translate those letters while he was there would you?” 

Emily gave a half nod. “So same field but different specialties. Makes sense.” 

“Us hackers come in all different flavors. Garcia’s been with the FBI so long she’s better at her job than anyone else in the world.” Daisy looked over to where JJ was on the phone with Garcia on the other side of the police offices. “Hey is JJ ok? She’s been staring at me more than usual and has been avoiding me I think?” 

“She’s going through something outside of work. Don’t worry about it, she’ll be fine.” Emily kept her tone even and light. It would be the worst option if Daisy decided solving JJ’s issue was something that needed to be done. “Any hits on the list of suspects?” 

“Nada.” Daisy’s shoulders slumped. “Sorry I can’t be more helpful.”

Emily tossed a pen at Daisy. “None of that. We can’t all have multiple moments of insight in every case.” 

“Fuck you.” Daisy huffed. 

JJ called out across the room. “We have something!” 

////

Morgan velcroed on his vest as he looked up at the Sheriff as the man approached.

The Sheriff reported to Hotch. “Well my team’s ready. Let’s get in there.” 

“Sheriff, we didn’t recover a gun at Chloe’s house. We have to assume she’s armed.” Hotch was serious but clearly already making plans. 

The Sheriff looked mildly confused. “Well so are we.” 

“If you storm in now she’ll shoot, and chances are she’ll start with the innocent woman in that house.” Rossi cut in. 

Morgan looked around the police gathered here. “What do you think Hotch?” 

“I think you should look for an open window. And take Daisy with you.” He turned to the Sheriff. “Sheriff, I need you to bring all of your vehicles around to the front-”

Morgan unholstered his gun and moved away, he knew the plan from that. Get in, get the house owner so she couldn’t be the next victim or a hostage. The team would distract their unsub long enough for that. He grabbed Daisy’s shoulder. “Come on, we’re going around back.” 

“Secure the unsub while the others distract?” Daisy asked, falling into step as they moved away from the rest of the group. 

He considered that. “Once I get the girl out go ahead. She’s probably got a gun though and she isn’t the type of unsub you can talk down.” 

“I can handle her.” Daisy didn’t bother to touch her service weapon...or any of the other weapons he knew were squirreled away on her. 

Morgan nodded. “I know.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the well wishes!

Daisy was bored. So bored. “Why!” 

“Because you insisted on coming with us.” Emily tossed a granola bar back at Daisy’s head. 

The local officer looked relatively confounded but kept driving. 

Reid cleared his throat. “Tell us about the 911 call.” 

“I believe the ‘he’ they referred to is the church’s leader, Benjamin Cyrus.” The female cop shifted, they’d been in the car for over two hours. 

Reid flipped through the file Garcia had prepared, completely missing the three women in the car were all hot, cramped, and desperately wanted out of the car. “No criminal record. No record at all, really. What else do you know about him?” 

“It’s rumored that he’s practicing polygamy and forced marriages.” The cop didn’t look convinced. 

Emily spoke up. “Any idea who the caller is?” 

“Uh, Jessica Evanson is the one who the age fits, but...we can't be sure.” The woman shook her head slightly. “So I negotiated interviews with all the children. It wasn’t easy.” 

Emily clearly read the clear disgust on the officer’s face. “Well considering their view on outsiders, it would be best if you didn’t identify us as FBI.” She passed her gun and badge into the backseat to Daisy. “Just use our real names, and introduce us as child victim interview experts.”

Daisy slipped the gun and badge away. She looked up. “It’s better for me to stay in the car I’m guessing?” 

“There’s a high statistical probability that Cyrus and the other individuals in the compound have racial prejudices that would affect their behavior.” Reid rattled off. 

Daisy slumped slightly more in her seat. “Good thing I brought my phone.” 

“If we need backup we’ll radio you.” Emily shot her a sharp look.

The local frowned looking back. “Wait, backup?” 

“She’s the muscle on our team.” Emily snorted. “I know, but she’s special ops. If we need to get out with a kid, negotiation and her are our best options.” 

Daisy smirked, but stayed slouched in her seat. Why had she tagged along on this one? She spotted the religious libertarian compound. That was why. Religious, libertarian, compound sounded like a terrible location for just two of the team to go into. So angry birds in a car while Reid and Emily made sure the weird compound people weren’t also creepy pedophiles. 

By an hour of boring hot car app games and Daisy was ready to scream. How many kids did they have to interview?! Her head thunked back. She yawned, god it was so hot. Sliding down she stretched across the backseat, all the windows were down. She closed her eyes. Next time she wasn’t following them to interview children. Just no. It didn’t take long for her to drift off. 

Daisy snapped awake at the sound of the first bullet. She was up and out of the car, gun drawn, and looking for the threat. Her eyes widened as she took in the situation. 

Coming up on the side were police humvees. And based off the militarized look it was a SWAT team. Guns were going off and fuck, the people inside the compound were shooting. She snarled and took off at a run for the command group of officers. “HEY!” 

The cop in full body armor got up, turned and fired at her. 

Daisy barely managed to slide to the side fast enough to avoid the bullet. As he went to fire again though she was ready. Throwing her arm up she sent the man flying. She pulled the trigger four times as the other cops by the commander turned towards the noise. 

Four fully kitted out cops hit the dirt, blue veins from dendrotoxin spreading across their faces. 

She grit her teeth. “Fuck.” She’d gotten complacent. Her eyes narrowed as she saw the gunbattle going on just down the hill in the compound. Her team was unarmed in there with children. She was going to kill someone. 

Daisy slung one of the automatic rifles from the cops over her shoulder and marched down the hill. Several bullets disintegrated from her vibrations as she closed the distance. She didn’t bother trying to pacify the cops she was now coming right up on. They went down easy, one tried to ram the butt of his gun into her face. She flipped him over her head and shot him in the neck with dendrotoxin. 

Her teeth ground as she saw the three cops pinned down against the front door of the compound. Fuck everything. She threw her hand up towards the top of the building where compound members were shooting and sent them flying, likely off the building with how hard she tossed them. Too bad for them.

“POLICE! STOP FIRING!” One of the pinned downed cops yelled at her. His eyes were wide as he realized every member of his team besides the two besides him were down. 

Daisy shot him in the face. And then she was on the last two. Two pulls of the trigger and she paused to load a new clip into her pistol. Last of her dendrotoxin rounds. She’d gotten too comfortable. Slipping the can of trauma foam Simmons was working on patenting, she shoved the head into the single injured, and now unconscious cop’s bullet wound. 

She looked at the large wooden doors in front of her. Peaceful libertarian’s her ass. Daisy touched the door. 

It shattered into thousands of pieces. Her eyes widened ever so slightly as she saw the local cop they’d come to the compound with. She cracked her neck as the flannel clad assholes in front of her gaped like morons. Daisy grinned. “Hey assholes, today is not your day.” 

Daisy tossed the now empty automatic gun to the side, pulling out her dendrotoxin handgun. It was easy enough to kick down the door into the basement. She raised her gun firing. Six shots, six unconscious men hit the ground. Sexist how there were no gun toting female idiots. Her eyes scanned the room taking in the fact the individuals left standing were unarmed. She snapped her eyes to Reid and Emily who had put themselves between the kids and the door when she’d kicked it in. 

She breathed out. “The standoff is over. The police are incapacitated, Cyrus and the other armed men are either dead or incapacitated.”

Daisy’s eyes were sharp as she watched the hoard of law enforcement that had arrived. “Don’t touch their handcuffs.” She ordered as she saw a state trooper head for where the SWAT team was zip tied to a fence. 

“Ma’am they’re ours though?” The man offered, a slight waver in his voice. 

She didn’t yield. “And they opened fire on a civilian building killing one of our own while three of our own, children, and other non combatants were inside. They can stay there and think about their stupidity in blindly following dumb orders without question, until their boss gets here to bring them up on disciplinary charges or be written up himself.” 

“Right uh…” He winced and shuffled to go help with the clean up. 

Daisy stepped to where the local Sheriff was supervising the seizing of the frankly alarming amount of guns and explosives out of the compound. “Sheriff, report.” 

“Your fellow FBI agents are conducting interviews with the families. I was notified the plane from Virgina with the rest of your team landed ten minutes ago. So far we’ve retrieved eighteen crates of semi automatic weapons, and six crates of explosives. We’re moving it all to the chapel since that’s where the explosives were concentrated and we don’t want the risk of moving them.” He touched his hat in respect. 

She nodded. “Good, the bodies?” 

“We moved them into the school. Those individuals you tranqed are awake and will be bussed to the station as soon as the vans get here. Is there anything else Ma’am?” His hands were settled on his belt. 

Daisy shook her head. “No, continue the good work. Once my team arrives Agent Hotchner will be in charge. But you've done well.” She gave him a sharp nod and walked towards the families and individuals rounded up from the compound. 

“Daisy.” Emily looked up and walked over. “What’s the situation?” 

She checked Reid was doing alright with where he was talking and taking notes. “The site is secure, Hotch and the others will be here shortly.” 

“You did good.” Emily looked around the field outside of the compound turned into a command center. “The amount of deaths is dozens below even a best picture in this type of situation.” 

Daisy’s jaw tightened. “I’ve gotten sloppy.” She paused as she saw the expression on Emily’s face. “Not like that. I got lazy, let my guard down.” If it wasn’t a serious situation she’d have shrugged. “Yes, I’m mad and disappointed in myself for falling asleep while running security. I let my edge dull. But I can fix that.” 

“You took down this entire compound in under five minutes. Look at all these families? A lot of them probably would have died if you hadn't acted as you did.” Emily had her profiling face on, not that Daisy was going to mention it. 

She looked towards the school where they had moved the bodies. “There would be two dead if I’d been on my guard. But I didn’t bring enough dendrotoxin rounds. I won’t make that mistake again. Who knew retirement did that to you?” 

“You can’t be hyper vigilant 100% of the time, you won’t be able to function. Be careful.” Emily touched her forearm lightly. 

Daisy’s eyes snapped to the dust of vehicles driving towards the compound. “There’s the rest of the team.” 

Daisy’s head snapped around as she saw a man who had politician written all over him huffing and puffing as he talked to the locals, clearly trying to understand what happened. “Who’s that?” 

“State Attorney General Wells, it was his weapons bust.” Morgan scoffed. “He’ll be looking for someone else to dump the blame on.” 

Her eyes narrowed. “That won’t be happening. Why isn’t he under arrest for lying to a federal officer and negligent homicide?” 

“Because he’s an elected official?” Morgan looked between her and the man who was now making his blustery way towards Hotch. “You’re not going to go arrest him are you?” 

She considered that. “Good idea.” Ignoring his yelp of alarm, she marched straight towards the man who’d caught sight of her and had paused. 

Daisy reached him and grabbed him by his wrist while pulling cuffs out. “You’re under arrest for lying to a federal officer, negligent homicide, and I’ll find some corruption charges to add to that.” She hooked and spun him, locking the cuffs around his other wrist. 

“You CAN’T DO THIS!” Wells cried out, futilely trying to struggle. It wasn’t even worth noticing frankly. 

She shoved at him as she moved him towards the nearest patrol car. “I can do this, and I am. People died, you almost got dozens more killed, and all for a publicity stunt.” 

“This won’t stand! You! Come free me this instant!” Wells glared at Hotch. 

Daisy kept frog marching him towards the patrol car. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in court. You have the right to have a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer one will be appointed for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?” 

“I’m THE ATTORNEY GENERAL! Of fucking course I know what you just said you insane bitch! You will let me go right this instant! You cannot do this! I DEMAND you release me right now! I will have your badge for this!” 

Daisy opened the patrol car and shoved him in. “You are sorely mistaken if you think you have any authority now.” She snapped before slamming the door, cutting off whatever it was he might say. 

She turned and looked at the confounded expressions on the local police officers’ faces. “Anyone who even thinks of helping him will join him on charges of aiding and abetting.” 

“Indeed.” Hotch’s head tipped ever so slightly in acknowledgment. 

////

Morgan paused as he pulled up at the location he’d been texted for their morning workout. It was a Saturday so maybe something new? “Is this the right place?” 

“I entered us as a team.” Daisy chucked a duffle bag at him. 

He looked at the posters. “Teams are made of twenty?”

“Well it is a tournament.” Daisy grinned, rolling her shoulders. “It’s popular with veterans as a way to keep their skills up. Thought I could use a non lethal shoot out.” 

Morgan took in the groups of large beefy men and the occasional beefy lady. Though he supposed it made sense in a way. He’d heard paintball helped ease tension in individuals with PTSD. But just the two of them against teams of twenty? “You owe me a drink for every ball that hits me.” 

“I’ll pay for the drinks after we win that stupid trophy.” Daisy rubbed her hands together. “It’s been too long.” 

He sighed in resignation that this was a thing they did now. “We’re bringing Emily next time, and you’re an adrenaline junkie. You do know that right?” 

“Duh.” She pulled a paintball gun out of her own duffle. “That’s the only sort who end up agents.” 

Morgan chuckled as he felt an excited hum in his chest at the thought of the day. “You’re not wrong.” 

Morgan popped up giving firing cover as Daisy slid under a spray of green paint to shoot a member of team BlackHawk. She rolled over him, shot his teammate, grabbed their third and dragged them into the open using the poor sod as a human shield. The tough guys had to be regretting the fullcontact part of the tournament rules considering Daisy.

He dropped back down and in a crouch ran for the next bit of cover. Coming around the corner he fired into the chest of the BlackHawk already using it. He rolled off, nearly missing blue paint splattering the wall he’d just been using as cover. 

This was insane! 

He fired in the general direction the blue paint had come from only to stop as Daisy came vaulting over a raised pile of tires, firing down behind it, while she was using someone else's gun to shoot behind her. 

Morgan shook his head at the sight and booked it for the wooden tower that could be used as a perch. Sweat was running down his face into his eyes, down his back, his shirt sticking to him. It was some of the best fun he’d had in ages.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Christmas is so close guys....my family is planning an outdoor bonfire so we can do socially distanced christmas in the snow. It sounds like a disaster. Something that shouldn't be on fire is definitely going to catch on fire.

Hotch set his fresh go bag by the door of his office. It was good to be back. 

“Hotch.”

He turned to where JJ was standing in the doorway into his office. “Already?” 

“No, but I have some cases for you to take a look at.” She hefted a stack of at least twenty case files into his hands. “It never ends.” 

He sighed accepting it. “Thank you. Anything else?” 

“Haley called, Jack has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at ten.” JJ looked at him with that painful understanding.

He kept back his shudder at not even knowing what his son was going to the doctor for. “I’ll call her back.” 

JJ started to duck out of his office.

Hotch spoke up. “JJ. I don’t know what’s been bothering you lately. But if you need anything, you only need to ask.” 

“I’ll take care of it.” JJ paused slightly. “And Sir, thank you.”

He shook his head slightly as he made his way to his desk. It was exhausting, but it was time to get to work. 

“Give me the kid, he likes going to the lectures.” Rossi was looking out the window into the bullpen. 

Hotch signed the needed paperwork. “I’ll need you back after the weekend.” 

“We might stop for some pie on the way back.” Rossi chuckled. “The kids are doing good.”

He set his pen down. “Straus was furious we had an Attorney General arrested.”

“Do you think she’ll do something about it?” Rossi queried. 

Aaron gave the slightest of snorts. “She wouldn’t dare, our agent Coulson outranks her. It would be career suicide.” He was deeply amused that Straus had created her own headache by assigning them agent Coulson. “Speaking of Daisy, why is there one of those ridiculous wrestling award belts hung over her chair?” 

“It’s MMA actually. She’s undefeated at the moment, but in her last match Bridezilla almost had her.” Rossi’s eyes had lit with a surprising glee. “I’d never been but you remember the black eye from last week? I was curious.” 

Hotch frowned. “It wasn’t just from some gym accident?” 

“Well if an accident is ElectricFist’s fist.” Rossi chuckled. “You should come with me to watch, I’m fairly sure it’s only partially legal. But I’m starting to think the next Mrs Rossi can crack a man’s head with her thighs.” 

He couldn’t help picturing that and then snorting. “No?” 

“Oh yes, I think Rodio Diva has been eyeing yours truly.” He shoved his hands into his pockets, his face warm and amused. “Which was only slightly marred by Garcia making ‘Terminator’ t-shirts for us.” 

Aaron smiled at that, it was something their tech analyst would do. He looked at Rossi and wondered if the other man knew the answer to his real question any better than he did. “It’s not just falling asleep in Colorado. Any idea what she’s preparing for?” 

“No idea, but I don’t think we’ll miss it when it comes.” Rossi looked down into the bullpen where Reid and Daisy were talking, Morgan and Emily pretending to do their work while listening in. “Whatever it is, I wouldn’t bet against our girl.” 

Hotch glanced at the paintball trophy on Morgan’s desk. “No, no I wouldn’t either.” 

////

JJ watched as Daisy gently helped Garcia with a throat punch. She smiled at it, it had been good for Garcia. Especially after she’d been shot. 

“You gotta really go for it, the Dummy isn't going to get hurt.” Daisy corrected, laughter in her voice. “Just imagine the dummy is the worst 4-chan obsessed, incel troll you’ve ever-”

Garcia punched the dummy in the neck so hard the whole thing rocked. “Ow!” She shook out her hand. “Holy guacamole! Why do people punch each other?” 

JJ clapped as she walked over. “That was really good Garcia.” 

Garcia grinned. “It was, wasn’t it?” 

“It was.” Daisy laughed, patting Garcia’s shoulder. “Come on, we should call it if you want to type for the rest of the day.” 

Garcia glanced at the dummy. “That still seems a bit….violent?” 

“You punch someone in the throat hard enough and you’ll have more than enough time to run away.” Daisy picked up a water bottle and tossed it to Garcia. “Now let’s go check out that new taco truck. I haven’t had a good taco since I left LA.” 

JJ spoke up. “Actually I was wondering if I could talk to you about something first?” 

“Sure.” Daisy’s eyes flicked back and forth before settling on Garcia. “Grab me some tacos and bring them back for me?” 

Garcia lowered the water bottle. “Sure thing Terminator.” She paused to loudly kiss JJ on the cheek, before making her way to the locker rooms. 

“So what’s up?” Daisy rolled her weight to her toes, her hands sliding into the front pocket of the loose sweatshirt, she was wearing over her workout gear. 

JJ was reminded other agents were in the gym by the sound of someone setting a weight down too fast. “Talk about it over coffee?” 

“Sure, just let me get cleaned up.” Daisy grinned and then bounced off for the locker rooms. 

She sighed, well this was horrible. How did men do this? This was ridiculous. 

Daisy sipped at her disgusting grass latte. “So what did you want to talk about? If this is about the trophy incident that was 50% Morgan’s fault.” 

“No.” JJ brought her actually, delicious coffee, up to her mouth. “I wanted to talk to you about something personal.” 

Daisy’s eyes softened. “Of course, what’s going on?” 

“Am I wrong that you’ve been flirting with me?” JJ pressed her fingers against her mug so hard that they went white. 

Daisy’s eyes widened, her voice pitching up. “Yes, but mostly in the beginning before I realized you were straight?” She set her coffee down. “I can stop completely if you want though.” 

“Did you mean it?” JJ asked.

Daisy blinked. “I’m not gonna go creepy stalker on you.” She twisted her fingers. “I’m an adult, it’s not the end of the world.” 

“So if I asked you to dinner?” JJ asked, christ this was ridiculous. Liking Daisy was exhausting, this was not convenient. 

Daisy’s eyes lit, a stupid grin showing on her face. “Are you asking me out Agent Jareau?” 

“If you say yes.” JJ could feel herself relaxing as she realized Daisy looked delighted. 

Daisy grinned. “How do you feel about a grown up date? I have to admit I’ve never done the fancy dinner thing before. Well if we don’t get a case, if we get a case I’m down for plane peanuts and whiskey bottles in a shitty motel.” 

“No telling the team, I’m not…” JJ winced, god this could get so messy. 

Daisy spoke up. “I’m a spy, and I was there when you broke up with Will. I get secrets. And dating in team can be...dramatic.” She rolled her eyes. “Like so dramatic if it goes wrong. Besides, I may spill info all over the place, but what’s my rank?” 

JJ’s shoulders had unclenched at the easy acceptance of just giving them some time. But then Daisy mentioned her rank and JJ realized she didn’t know. She didn’t even know her actual job title. “You give dozens of pieces unconnected information and give nothing that's actually important.” 

“It’s a gift.” Daisy shrugged, taking a sip of her grass, green tea, latte. “I have to say I had you pegged as straight. Well not initially, you stared at my ass the first week.” 

JJ spluttered on her coffee. “No I didn’t!” 

“You so did. It’s good, I got a great ass.” Daisy grinned. “So dinner?” 

JJ huffed, but she felt light. “Dinner sounds good.” 

////

Emily’s foot bounced as the plane came in for their next field case. This was going to be an up and moving case, traveling by car one. Spread out cases and traveling unsubs were exhausting but quick. She glanced over the file at Daisy who was stretched out, eyes closed, though her mouth turned up into a smile that gave away she wasn’t sleeping. “So am I invited to the next paintball tournament? Cause the way Morgan is talking about it sounds kind of fun.” 

“He’d know, how many people did you shoot? Five?” Daisy’s smirk grew as she spoke, though she didn’t open her eyes. 

Morgan looked up from crime scene photos. “Who gave you covering fire, all weekend.” 

Emily snickered. “So not the badass manly event we were hearing about.” 

“Hey, I only got hit twice!” Morgan protested, though he was laid back, good humor on his face. 

Daisy giggled. “You did very well for being off against former black ops teams and seal teams.” 

“You weren’t just stomping on a bunch of twelve year olds?” Emily prodded. 

Rossi cleared his throat. “Let’s go over the case one last time before we land.” 

Emily shared a look with Hotch as they came around the corner into the farm worker’s temporary collections of homes. “Having two ICE agents could make this go very badly.”

“We don’t let them arrest anyone.” Hotch’s hands tightened on the wheel. 

Daisy made an odd noise from the back of the SUV. “You know I don’t think I’m actually a legal citizen. But maybe being an Agent makes me a citizen?” 

“Wait, what?” Emily turned to look at their teammate. 

Daisy shifted uncomfortably. “I was born in China, american dad, chinese mom. Stuff happened, got smuggled here and left on a catholic orphanage’s doorstep. Classic story really.”

“How is your life real?” Emily shook her head. “Later. You’ll keep the ICE agents from doing anything stupid?” 

A truly mean look came over her face. “I can do that.” 

Emily paused as she saw Daisy sitting in with the brother of their unsub. She was just sitting with him, a cup of sweet tea in his hands. And then she started talking. 

“I’ll take him in alive. I promise.” She reached over and touched his hand. The two of them made eye contact for a long minute. And then Daisy was up. She gave Emily a slight nod as she passed her. 

Emily came squealing into the trainyard. She barely managed to rip the keys out of the vehicle before she was sprinting towards Hotch and Morgan. It was already done. They were standing over a now familiar shape of a tranqed unsub. “You’ve got him?” 

“Yeah, Daisy is running a perimeter check.” Morgan rubbed at his arm. “It was close there for a second.” 

“You’re hurt?” Emily holstered her gun.

Morgan shook his head. “Naw, just some bruises. Honestly Daisy’s workouts hurt more… which climbing on a moving train should not be that easy.”

“It’s how thousands of vagrants travel in this country.” Hotch was holstering his own gun. “You’re lucky Daisy took the shot before I did.” 

Emily punched Morgan lightly in the shoulder. “Locals should be here any minute.” And sure enough she heard the sound of sirens.

Hotch glanced at his wrist watch. “Once he’s in holding we should all get some sleep. We can conduct the interview and finish up our paperwork in the morning.” 

“Not going to argue that.” Emily breathed in relief. They had their unsub, the team was in one piece, and they didn’t have to sleep on the plane. 

Emily yawned as she made her way back to her hotel room. She had a bag of take out in one hand, she doubted she’d be awake enough to remember to eat it. It took her a second, and several blinks to recognize what she’d just seen. 

It was really just the back of someone, specifically not JJ disappearing into JJ’s room. Huh, that was a very familiar elbow and brown hair. 

She smiled, huh, well good for them. 

Emily shut and locked her room’s door and then face planted on the bed. She’d eat cold takeout tomorrow. Just sleep. Sleep was good.


	14. Chapter 14

JJ stared at the pretzels and tiny vodka on the rickety hotel table. “You were serious?” 

“Well I couldn’t find peanuts and I have a feeling I’m getting kicked out so you can sleep in like an hour tops. But better than nothing?” Daisy smiled, genuinely pleased with herself. 

She couldn’t help herself, smiling back. “Does this mean I’m taking you to a fancy restaurant? I’m not sure on the rules for dating women.” Which was irritating. Why hadn’t her life prepared her for this? 

Daisy laughed. “No idea, but sounds good to me.” 

“Any experience with dating a girl?” JJ asked hoping one of them wasn’t going into this blind. 

Daisy pulled out the two chairs that looked like they were from the sixties. “Unless you want to count making out with Becky Voss in the sixth grade, not really.” Daisy poked a finger at her. “Stop talking yourself out of it. I got a promise of a date.” 

“You’re ridiculous.” But she smiled as she sat down. “So pretzels?” 

Daisy shrugged. “I mean I could have gotten dry burgers like Prentiss was heading for, but I would rather have a kind of crappy date.” 

“Crappy already? And you’re the one planning it.” JJ hissed at the taste of vodka. “This is terrible.” 

“I know, it’s so bad.” Daisy took a long sip of her tiny bottle and somehow made that look attractive. It was unfair. “So, does first date mean I get to know more about your family?”

She softened, this was just them really. Well she could do that. “Rural, boring, there’s not much to tell.” 

“Now I know that’s not true.” Daisy’s head tilted to the side slightly. “If you don’t want to talk about it’s fine. We all have things that are hard to talk about. And parents are hard.” 

JJ opened up a bag of pretzels. “I had an older sister.” 

JJ accepted her order of coffee being slid into her hand. “Thanks.” 

“No problem,” Daisy replied, easy as anything. “Hotch if I got the whole team tranq rounds do you think that would be approved?” 

Hotch lowered his post solve novel. “You can do that?” 

“I’ll put in the order.” Daisy dropped across from Morgan and Emily. “You two are going down.” 

Emily pulled out a deck of cards. “Oh don’t be so sure. It’s your one weakness. And we have a Reid.” 

“Poker isn’t a team sport.” Daisy dropped her spare change on the table, they’d been betting pennies for the last few flights. 

Reid grinned, chest slightly puffed in pride at his last win as he half swaggered over, taking the seat next to Daisy. 

JJ smiled looking away from the round of teasing and jocking that was about to start. She pulled up her book. This was good. She was just starting to relax in for a good flight, drinking her favorite coffee order, when her phone went off. She pulled out her phone, ignoring how the whole team was staring at her expectantly. 

“We’re turning the plane around, we’ve got one in Las Vegas.” JJ could feel the groan the team gave out. So much for a proper date when they got back. 

////

Morgan paused as Daisy shoved her gun into his hand. “What?” 

“She’s crazy not evil. I’ll be in a perch. But if you have the shot don’t fear, it’s non-lethal. And it won’t get you worse than a bruise.” Daisy held his gaze. 

He took the gun, leaving his holstered. “Alright.” 

“Good.” 

Three minutes later he didn’t blink, or agonize over the unsub threatening to toss the child into a fire. Instead he just pulled the trigger. 

He hit the ground by her side just seconds later, pulling the blanket off the kid. “HOTCH! It’s not him!” 

-”I’ve got Wil!”- Reid’s voice came through the radio.

Morgan sighed, eyes closing. They had the kid. He opened his eyes and reached out feeling the unsub’s pulse. He hadn’t had to kill a mentally ill woman to save a pile of blankets over a teddy bear. He pressed the back of his hand into his forehead. Reaching up he hit the radio. “Can I keep your tranq gun?” 

-”All yours Morgan. Good shot.”- Daisy’s voice crackled over the radio. 

“You alright?” Hotch asked from where he was holstering his gun. 

He looked up at his boss. “Yeah, never had to fire and not have the unsub die. It’s… I get it now.”

“I’ll fill out that paperwork Daisy dumped on me for that ammo.” Hotch gave him a sharp nod. 

Morgan straightened, it was a win. A good one. Now to go convince Reid that his nightmares didn’t mean anything. 

Morgan caught Daisy’s arm and pulled her aside. “I’m gonna stay behind with Rossi. There’s a cold case here that’s important for Reid.” 

“Is that why he’s been so twitchy?” She pushed some of her hair behind one ear. “Is it dangerous?” 

He shook his head. “It’s over ten years cold, and it was a pedophile case. Low risk, I can protect the team. Go back with the others. We’ll be fine.” 

She rocked on the balls of her feet. “If you think it could be dangerous you call me immediately.”

“Yes ma’am.” Morgan winked. “But I got this one.” 

She bit her lower lip. “Take care of Reid.” 

“I got him.” Morgan slapped her shoulder. 

////

Daisy grabbed Emily and JJ’s bags. It wasn’t heavy to her anymore, shitty knock off super soldier serum did that. Not that she’d had a full does of the Centipede serum like Mike, but she had had an injection of it. She tried to not think of the moment Coulson changed the history of the world. 

“I can grab my bag!” Emily protested. 

She slung two of them over one shoulder. “I didn’t get to do anything useful for this one. Let me at least get the bags.” 

“Not going to try and grab Hotch’s?” JJ asked, brows slightly raised, and clearly amused. 

Daisy threw a look at Hotch who was heading for his SUV. “HOTCH! Burgers?” 

“Oh I could go for a burger,” Emily moaned. 

Hotch looked between the three of them and then sighed. “I could use a burger.” 

“I’ll call Garcia.” Daisy whistled as she made her way to an empty SUV and dumped their go bags in the back. “I don’t know about all of you but I could use a shower, but meet up in say two hours at Dick’s?”

There was a chorus of agreement. 

JJ looked like she was barely keeping from sniffing herself. “Back to back cases in the heat.” 

“Should I look into stocking the plane with extra go bags from everyone?” Daisy considered, they’d all run out of clean clothing yesterday. 

Hotch shot her a look that she realized was silent laughter. “You’d have to get rid of the rocket launcher.” 

“Fine, was worth considering.” She shrugged before climbing into the driver’s seat. “Anyone need a ride back to Quantico to pick up their car?” 

Daisy hummed in glee as she bit into a giant, juicy, burger. This was so the right decision. She could feel herself relaxing, well as much as she could relax in diners after getting kidnapped out of one. Still, they were homey and god was the food good. 

“I’m so glad Morgan found this place,” Emily said as she pulled her own burger closer while examining it for the best method of approach. A futile attempt, they would fall apart and smear all of their faces. 

Hotch wasn’t even pretending he could stay neat and was tucking a napkin into the top of his shirt. It was always odd to see him in anything but his typical suit. 

Garcia purred as she picked her burger up. “My Chocolate Thunder has strokes of brilliance.” 

“Not arguing that.” JJ shared a look with Emily and then both of them were laughing.

Daisy felt smug, this was good. This team had the misfortune of being asked to be agents and civilians. It left the horror they saw as an unending sludge that stayed with them as they tried to live civilian lives. Because they weren’t surrounded by people who got it in down time as well as mission hours. No wonder SHIELD strongly discouraged family or relationships outside of the agency. So what if this place made her skin crawl slightly, this was a good thing. They needed down time with people who got it.

“You’re checking the door a lot, even for you Terminator. You ok?” Garcia asked.

She tilted her head slightly. “I am?”

“You are.” Hotch lowered the burger he’d been working on. “We can get our orders to go and eat elsewhere if you want.” 

Daisy waved him off. “Please, I’m fine. And we’re in a booth. It’s all good.” 

“You still owe me one uncensored honest answer.” Garcia looked at her pointedly. “What’s going on?” 

Daisy blinked. “You remember that, and want to use it cause I’m a bit jumpy in diners?” 

“Yes.” Garcia held out her hand in an open offer. “You’re important Sweetie.” 

She set her burger down and leaned back in her seat. “Last time I was in a diner my team was grabbed at gunpoint and sent...well it wasn’t a good place. It was weeks for us to escape and we all had scars from it. I was lucky, I was valuable to them because of my skill set and they knew that as long as they had my team I would do what they wanted.” Her hand involuntarily reached up to touch where her inhibitor had been surgically implanted, the familiar ridges of the scarring from having it ripped out comforted her. It was gone. 

“They did that to you?” JJ asked carefully, her hand touching Daisy’s leg under the table. 

Daisy could feel herself wanting to tense up. Instead she laughed. “No, the scar is from removing what they put in.” She could see the looks on their faces. “It was a while ago, I’m really fine. Just a bit jumpy. But I get jumpy at a lot of things. Really, I’m fine.” 

JJ raised her arm summoning the waitress over. “Hey, can we move to one of your outside tables? It’s such a nice evening.” 

“Oh.” She murmured. This was...oh they weren’t just her’s, she was theirs too wasn’t she? 

Daisy laughed as she walked JJ to her house. “How are you scared of the woods if you grew up in a rural area?” 

“You have a shameful fear somewhere under that tough agent face.” JJ elbowed her lightly. 

Daisy considered that. “I really don’t like octopus’s...it’s all the arms.”

“I knew it!” JJ laughed. “But octopus’s?” 

Daisy pulled them to a stop as they reached JJ’s door. It was a cute house. “It’s the arms, I see the arms. But how many octopuses run around on land?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Unlike someone’s fear of trees.” 

“I’m not afraid of trees, it’s forests.” JJ corrected, though her good humor remained. 

She grinned. “I’ll protect you from the big bad forests.” 

“I’ll shoot your octopuses.” JJ glanced at her door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” 

Daisy found she liked being the same height as the person she was dating. No tipping her head up, just easy somehow. She leaned forward and kissed the corner of JJ’s mouth. “See you tomorrow.” 

JJ rolled her eyes and pulled her back in. 

Daisy dropped coffee off at Emily’s desk. “Any news from the boys?” 

“Nothing good. Garcia might need help with the research.” Emily smiled as she grabbed the coffee. “You know you don’t have to bring coffee in as much as you do right?” 

She stepped back from Emily’s desk. “I know.” Daisy tilted her head towards JJ’s office. “I’ll drop off JJ’s coffee, let her know I’ll be helping Garcia with tech today.” 

“And Daisy, be careful if you talk to Reid, he’s spiraling on this one.” Emily cautioned. 

Daisy paused. “I’ll call him. I get the monstrous parent thing.” 

“If you do be careful.” Emily picked up a case file. 

She’d have made a salute if she had two free hands. “Got it.” 

Daisy picked up her phone and dialed. 

-”Do you have something?”- Reid’s voice was sharper than usual. 

She leaned against the wall in the hallway. “No, but I get that you need to know what happened. Even if it turns out your dad killed that man. Even if he did it to protect you as a kid. I get it.” 

-”No offense no you don’t.”- Reid snapped. -”I don’t have time for this, I’m busy on the case.”- 

Daisy pulled the phone away as the dial tone echoed. Well, that went well. She sighed, he was going to crash hard. Pushing off the wall she made her way to JJ’s office. As she stepped into the room JJ looked up. 

“Did the fingerprint come back?” JJ asked. 

She shook her head. “Not yet. I tried to talk to Reid, he’s wound tight as a drum.” 

“Are you ok?” JJ stood from her desk, stepping around her desk. 

Daisy caught JJ’s hand. “I’m fine, he’s not actually mad at me. He’s upset and isn’t willing to be talked off the cliff.” 

“Morgan and Rossi have him.” JJ pulled back, her eyes flicking to the camera. 

Daisy smiled, she got it. And now wasn’t the time. “Dinner tonight?” 

“I think I can pencil that in. If this case is still going on though…” JJ bit at her lower lip.

Daisy relaxed. “Of course, if the fingerprint doesn’t end all of this we’re staying here till we break the case.” 

“How do you feel about French?” JJ asked, a slight smile pulling up her lips. 

They both froze as her phone rang. Daisy sighed. “I have a feeling our next date is going to be in another crappy hotel room.” 

JJ held up a finger while picking up the phone.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some accidental consequences of time-travel. Oops.

Emily was really starting to hate California. She paged through the crime scene photos. The police in Sacramento couldn’t catch a break. Not even two weeks since they’d last been there and they were flying back in. “The unsub ripped these people to pieces.” 

“Drug fueled psychosis?” Hotch suggested as he held up a picture of someone with their arm literally ripped off. “PCP could account for the strength being displayed.”

Daisy hummed. “I’ve seen this kind of thing before, but it was a nearly lethal injection of testosterone and gorilla testosterone along with several other chemical agents. Failed attempt at recreating the Captain America serum.” 

“Chance this is related?” Emily looked up from the gore.

She shook her head. “Not possible, there’s an entire CIA team chasing down the individual and he was last sighted in Venezuela.” She frowned. “Could it be more than one person?” 

“Unlikely.” Emily sighed as she went back to the crime scene, two cops and an as of yet unidentified man all ripped to shreds. “Whatever happened here had to have happened fast. They didn’t even manage to radio for help.” 

“Blitz attack, no one this far into a psychotic break could manage to lure them into the alley.” Hotch agreed. 

Emily looked up expecting one of the other boys to weigh in. But no, they were driving from Las Vegas to meet them in Sacramento. She straightened. “Whoever this is someone had to have seen them.” 

“I’ll talk to the locals, they might have missed an earlier case if it wasn’t as violent of a scene as this one.” JJ brought up.

Daisy pulled out her phone. “Garcia and I will start looking into other jurisdictions and see if our unsub’s been busy elsewhere.” 

“Once we hit the ground it’s all feet on deck. Emily go to our crime scene, take Daisy with you. I’ll catch up with the other’s on what they’ve missed. JJ the locals.” Hotch shut his folder. 

Emily turned towards Daisy. “You might want to bring some extra tranq rounds, just one might not take down an unsub in a psychotic break, especially one high on something like PCP.” 

“Don’t worry, these rounds will take down a rhinoceros.” Daisy grinned.

She paused. “How does that not kill people?” 

“Fitzsimmons are brilliant and I have learned not to question the toys they make.” Daisy shrugged. She frowned looking at the photos. “This third victim, look at that tattoo on the arm, it’s flash art. That means cheap.” 

Emily looked up and down the alley. “No surveillance. If he was laying in wait this would be a good place.” 

“I think the cops were the targets then.” Daisy kicked at some of the trash. “Look, someone was hiding their stash, and didn’t take it with them.” 

She walked over and nodded. “And that’s heroin. So our third victim's stash, not our unsub’s.” Emily frowned as she looked around the alley. “Look at the blood smears on the wall. One of the victims got tossed into this wall, but for the directionality to be from that angle…” 

“The unsub followed them into the alley.” Daisy frowned as she walked over to the ground and looked down. “Look at this blood splatter. It’s layered. He was torturing this one.” 

Emily’s head snapped around. “What?” 

“The splatter layers, that’s repetitive injuries while the victim holds still. With how ripped up the corpses were it would have been easy to miss. But look at this. The others got ripped up across the alley, this one in one place.” 

She opened the case file and flipped through. “Officer Jenkins. So possibly a personal agenda.” 

“Maybe.” Daisy rose from where she’d crouched to look at the blood spray. “That’s knife work for that type of blood spray. Never got the appeal, it’s easier to just break bones. And less chance of killing the person you’re questioning.” 

Emily shuddered to a halt. “Do I want to know?” 

“Probably not.” Daisy didn’t bother to look ashamed or even sorry. Which spoke volumes of the situations she’d been in. 

She just nodded. From what little Daisy substantively mentioned, she was fairly certain Daisy had been undercover for a long time, with deeply evil people. “Do you think any of this blood is from our unsub?” 

“No, not unless he cut his knuckles on the victim’s teeth. Neither cop got their guns out. That means no time to fight back.” Daisy moved to the entry of the alley. “So he gets here, kills officer Marks with a stab to the jugular, literally ripping the man’s throat out.” 

Emily looked at the crime scene photos and then back at the scene. “He stabs into the armpit of officer Jenkins and physically throws him into the wall. Once on the ground he proceeds to tear the man apart with a small knife and his bare hands. While holding him down, likely to demand answers.” 

“Which leaves victim three, the drug addict trapped, and cowering…” Daisy stepped to the back of the alley, her nose scrunching up in disgust. “Where he pisses himself.” She looked at the next bit of blood spray. “He drags victim three out of hiding and caves in his chest with the trash can, and stomps on his head till it cracks.” 

Emily moved closer to the entrance into the alley. “And then comes back to officer Marks and beats him with the trash can lid till he looks like this before ripping his arm off.” 

“I’m not a profiler, but that’s a lot of rage.” Daisy closed the case file. 

She sighed. “This is going to be a bad one. If he was interrogating officer Jenkins then he’s not done.” Emily felt her heart sink as her phone went off. 

////

Morgan pulled the SUV up at the latest crime scene. Climbing out of the vehicle he took in the location, this one was a warehouse. He shared a knowing look with Rossi, they’d barely had time to drop Reid off at the station before getting here. “Less than twenty four hour cool down.” 

“I don’t need to tell you how not good that is.” Rossi slipped his thumbs into his belt loops. “Let’s go see if there’s signs of interrogation at this one.” 

He made a low noise of assent and made his way under the yellow tape. The bodies were still at this one. The heat had made the smell nearly unbearable as he made his way into the warehouse. Six dead here, and again they were ripped to shreds, some more than others. Looked like some of them had at least managed to put up a slight fight. “Gangbangers this time.” 

“I think I know what our unsub is looking for.” Rossi stated, frozen, looking down at the blood spread across the floor. 

Morgan walked over and read the single word painted in blood. “Fuck.” 

“Fuck indeed.” Rossi looked up. “We can’t let Daisy onto this crime scene. This is why Sacramento, she helped JJ with the press release two weeks ago. She’d have been in the background on camera.” 

Morgan nodded. “I’ll go stop her and take her into the station. You and Emily can meet us there after you’ve examined the scene.” 

“Stop me from what?” Daisy’s voice called out as she stepped into the warehouse, Emily right beside her. 

He quickly moved his hands up. “Daisy you need to go back to the station right now. The unsub is looking for you.” 

“What?” Daisy strode over, circumventing him easily. She froze as she looked at her name painted on the ground of the crime scene. Her whole face went blank. 

Rossi spoke slowly. “Do you know who did this?” 

She ignored him, grabbing her phone and hitting a speed dial number. Daisy didn’t move, or try to prevent them from shamelessly listening to her side of the conversation. She just spoke. “Fury, we have a problem.” 

Daisy looked over at one of the bodies. “You told me you had it. The case is mine now, forget your special Strike team. He’s here, Sacramento.” There was a long pause. “You didn’t want me to have to kill him, well guess what I might have to because he’s killing cops to find me. No you can’t come here, you have to go grab Skye now. NO!” Her face turned truly furious. “She’s in danger if he’s in Sacramento, she’s a teenager and in LA. If he finds her we both know exactly what he’ll do to her. I’m a monster, she isn’t.” 

Morgan flinched at the way she said ‘monster’. It was unquestioning, and certain. He shared a deeply concerned look with Emily. 

“Fine, send the Strike team here. I’d be happy to remind them of how to do their jobs. But it doesn’t matter how close to this one I am, I'm finishing it.” Daisy’s eyes narrowed. “You owe me.” 

There was a long minute of silence. And then she hung up her phone and turned to face them. “I know who our unsub is.” 

“Care to share with the class?” Morgan asked cautiously. 

Daisy looked down at the bodies. “My father.” 

////

Daisy kept her arms crossed as she sat, slouched in the chair in the small conference room. The rest of the team, sitting around the table. She looked up. “He’ll come in if we give me to him. He won’t hurt me, but he’ll hurt anyone he sees as standing between the two of us.” 

“How do you know that for sure?” Hotch asked sharply. 

Her jaw clenched slightly, but she needed them to not try to get between Cal and her. He’d kill them if they tried. “You can’t...it’s classified. It’s so classified I can’t say a lot. He’s a monster, but he’d never kill me. I can talk him down if you let me. Any cop you put between him and me he’ll rip to shreds.” 

“Why is it so classified?” Hotch asked, his face unbreaking. 

Daisy hated this, time travel made everything so complicated. But..well there was a single root to everything. “My mom, she’s a bio-terrorist. I cannot say anything else, people have died for knowing more than that.” 

“You said you started out as a terrorist who was caught?” Morgan asked slowly. 

She shook her head. “No, I believed in freedom of information. I was a stupid kid, but I always wanted to help people. And I was a pissed off foster kid looking for purpose. The group I ran with was very different than her’s. My mom… she had her reasons, but she hates humanity. Maybe if she’d found me before I found her. But no, I’m who Coulson and May trained me to be, not who Cal and Jiayang gave birth to.” 

“His name is Cal?” JJ asked slowly. 

Daisy nodded. “Calvin Johnson, he’s a doctor and insane. But I can talk him in. I promise.” 

“I say we set a trap.” Rossi spoke up. “Let Daisy talk him in, and if it goes badly we have a SWAT team on stand by if she can’t.” 

Hotch’s lips thinned. “How do we get him to come in?” 

“If you put me on the news.” Daisy frowned as she considered it. “Say I’m a tech support for the unit. We ask for the unsub to come in, and give him a location that isn’t the precinct. Has the media figured out where the last crime scene was?” 

Daisy carefully pulled on a soft flannel over a white t-shirt with a scoop neck. She looked at herself in the station’s bathroom. It was funny, she was dressed just like she had when she was Skye. But looking at herself she knew she didn’t look like she had. Not really. Close enough Cal wouldn’t question why she was older than she should be. He must have heard her name in one of the press conferences and put her resemblance and name down as a chance she was his. He wasn’t wrong, but it was terrible. 

“You don’t have to do this.” JJ closed the door behind her as she came into the station’s restroom. 

Daisy looked at her and just felt tired. JJ would never want to continue their tentative steps towards a relationship after all of this had shaken out. “Yes I do, he’s my dad.” 

“No he’s not.” JJ stepped forward touching her ever so slightly. “Coulson is your dad. It's not typical but he’s whose name you carry. He’s who you talk about. I know he’s why you have a Captain American bobblehead on your desk.” 

She sighed considering how to explain. “I love Coulson and May, they found a kid in a van in a back alley and helped shape the person I am. But it’s not that simple. Cal and Jiayang are.. They’re in my bones. And in really important ways I inherited a lot from them.” 

“You’re not a serial killer Daisy.” JJ’s fingers curled around her wrist. 

Daisy smiled, it was more bitter than she meant it to be. But she didn’t have it in her to lie. “No, I’m not a serial killer. But I’ve done terrible things.” 

“Don’t push us all away over this.” JJ held onto her wrist. 

She suddenly didn’t care that JJ was probably going to be going running into the hills after this arrest. She cupped the side of her face and pulled her in and closed her eyes. If she was going to lose it, at least she still had this moment.

Daisy stood in the middle of the warehouse. The bodies were gone, but she couldn’t help letting her eyes trail to her name on the floor. She looked up as she heard the door opening. 

“Daisy?” Cal shuffled in, his eyes flicking around for signs of others. 

She’d chosen right to have them be outside of the entire block. It would keep Cal calm, the wire was going to make this tricky though. She took in her father. Fuck, he was clearly already in that desperate state where he stopped being rational. He was probably a single stressor away from going full Hyde. Which was going to make talking him in hard. “Hi dad.” 

“You know who I am?” He asked, looking at her with wide hopeful eyes. “We have to leave before they come. They’ll take you. We need to go.” 

Daisy held out her hand. “I know who you are. You’re Dr. Cal Johnson, my dad. And we’re safe.”

“You know who I am.” His head tilted to one side as he stepped closer, eyes full of tears. And then he moved forward in a burst, taking her up in his arms. He hugged her, as tight as he could, and sobbed into her shoulder. “I found you, I finally found you.” 

Daisy hugged him back. He knew her. “I tried to find you too.” 

“I won’t let them take you again.” His voice held that thread of madness to it. 

She held onto him. “I know, I’m safe. You found me.” 

“I killed them all! How dare they try and take you from me.” His arms tightened further. 

Daisy carefully separated them so that she could watch his face. “Dad, dad I’m safe. They’re not going to take me again.” 

“You don’t know how special you are.” He reached up cupping the side of her face. “My girl.”

“I know about Afterlife, I know what made mom so special. Why people were chasing us.” She held onto him. “I promise I’m safe now. I found the Doctor. He’s dead.” 

His eyes looked crazed as he processed that. “Whitehall? You killed him?” 

“I killed him. He’s dead, I put a whole clip into his head.” Daisy held on, if he could just stay calm like this she could get him to surrender himself. 

Cal pulled her closer, his nails biting into her arms slightly. “He cut your mother, pulled her organs out. I tried to save her. I tried…” 

“I know. I know what you did to yourself. The drugs you took so you could save us. And you did, you got mom.” She held onto him. “Those agents in the village, they didn’t know I was yours. They brought me here to keep me safe. I was safe. You took care of your family. You don’t have to fight anymore.” 

He half dragged her three steps towards the door. “No, you don’t know what they’ll do to find you. Whitehall wasn’t the only one. It’s not safe. You don’t know who’s looking for you. They took Afterlife.” 

“No.” Daisy pulled back and held onto him as she did so. “Jiayang is alive. She’s in prison, but I visit. She’s been weaving a lot. I promise she’s safe. No experimentation.” 

Cal shook his head stepping back. “You work for them?” 

“She was going to kill everyone who wasn’t like us.” Daisy spoke slowly. “Everyone else, even you. She needs help dad. You do too.” 

Cal brought a hand up to his mouth. “How can you..” 

“I went through terrigenesis dad. I know my inheritance from mom. I promise you I’m safe. They couldn’t hurt me if they wanted to. You need to come in.” Daisy could feel his fractured psyche fighting through. 

“You’re going to arrest me?” He pulled back shaking his head. “You don’t… you don’t understand.” 

Daisy grabbed his forearm, letting her vibrations flow through him. Just enough he’d feel it all the way to his teeth. “I’m not lying. Dad, I'm trying to help you. You’ve hurt a lot of people. I know it wasn’t your fault. I know you were just trying to protect our family. But you need help, real medical help.” 

“No I..” Cal’s face started to twist up. 

She knew how that ended up, she’d seen what he transformed to when he let his fury rule him. So she pulled out her smallest handgun she’d had in the back of her jeans. Daisy pulled the trigger four times. 

His eyes widened, before his whole self went slack. Blue veins spreading past the collar of his wrinkled shirt.

Daisy caught him before he could hit the floor. Holding his frame she slowly lowered him to the ground. Brushing the hair out of his eyes she held him to her. Because he was a monster, but he was also her dad. She looked up at the camera, knowing they’d hear her with the wire she’d been wearing. “Clear.”


	16. Chapter 16

JJ could feel the awkwardness in the air. No one had tried to speak as they flew back to Quantico. How do you speak after a teammate's ugly, raw, emotional wounds were ripped open in front of you against their will? She wanted to get Daisy away from the team. It had been… watching the CIA team picking up Cal had been hard. 

The entire flight back had been exhausting. But finally, finally they landed. She ignored Reid’s guilty looks, Morgan and Emily’s twitching towards Daisy, and Hotch and Rossi’s serious expressions. “I’ll drive you home.” 

“It’s fine.” Daisy brushed her off, all coiled tension in her slumped position as she waited for the plane door to open. 

She raised a brow. “I wasn’t asking, you shouldn’t be driving after this case.” 

“I…” Daisy looked up her eyes sharp before softening ever so slightly as she looked at her. She gave a sharp nod. “Ok.” 

JJ stood and nabbed Daisy’s go bag. She was the first out of the plane. Marching towards the SUV’s she hit the clicker and tossed Daisy’s bag into the back before climbing into the driver’s seat. 

Sure enough Daisy slid into the passenger seat. She didn’t mention it, and simply started up the car. As she pulled onto the main road into the city she broke the silence, sort of. “You’re going to need to put your address in the GPS.” 

JJ parked the SUV and climbed out, grabbing Daisy’s go bag. She was making sure Daisy ate, and actually slept so help her. She looked at the apartment building as they silently made their way to the elevator. Nice enough building, not Emily nice, but nice. Once they reached the fifth floor, Daisy led the way to a nice enough looking door. 

“I’m good.” Daisy tapped one foot on the front mat. “Thank you for driving me back.” 

She looked at her girlfriend and knew she couldn’t leave Daisy like this. “How about some tea?” 

“You hate tea.” Daisy snorted, her shoulders falling. “Alright.” She turned and opened the door. Stepping in she clicked on the light and stood to the side, silently welcoming her in. 

JJ looked around as she entered. It was very open, the kitchen was neat and airy. There was a carpet with nothing on it sitting where the dining room table normally would be. The couch looked like you'd just sink into it. There were photos around the room. 

Daisy snagged her go bag and slipped towards the bedroom. 

She sighed before walking further into the room. JJ stopped in front of a photo on the mantelpiece. It was a group, everyone laughing, smudged with grime and blood but looking like the weight of the world had been taken off their shoulders.

There was a mild middle businessman looking gentlemen standing to one side. He was smiling over the rest of the group like a proud father. Besides him, the faintest of soft smiles on her face was the badass asian woman who'd picked Daisy up after work a few times. 

To the other side was a giant of an african american man in a sooty t-shirt. He towered over the others, but he also radiated sincerity. Leaning against him was a Latina woman with two robotic prosthetics. Her hair was pulled back, no make up, clothing mussed and actually smoking in some places, but she was truly radiant. 

Molded to each other was a pair with wedding rings. The young man's hair was curly and stuck up on one side. He had the biggest goofiest look on his face as he looked at the woman, who was clearly his wife, with adoration. She was wearing neatly corralled field gear, but there was blood splattered across one cheek.

But there in the middle was Daisy. She was wearing the oddest looking metal gauntlets. Her hair was long, blonde in it, and full of what looked like concrete dust. Daisy was wearing a tight micro weave of some sort, tactical belt around her waist. She looked happy.

"That's my old team. We took that when we realized we'd survived our last mission together. It was… we were, are family." Daisy's voice came from the kitchen.

JJ turned, and couldn't help the slightest thrill of gratitude at the sight of Daisy filling up a tea kettle. "They look like good people."

"They are. I understand why they thought I should retire. Coulson and May, the couple to the left, are planning to retire in another year. Fitzsimmons already have. Mack and Yo-yo might go back in for a couple more years, but are out right now. But they're all getting out. I think May's the only one who gets why I can’t, not really." Daisy pulled two mugs from the cabinet and a box of tea leaves. 

JJ smiled slightly at the giant vintage Captain America recruitment poster. "What was your role on the team? I've wondered."

"I got brought on as a hacker, but then it was deemed too dangerous for me not to have some field training. Then I chose to keep training as a combat specialist. That means weapons, sniper, hand to hand, basic infiltration, driving, etc. And then well… things happened and that wasn't my role anymore." Daisy pulled out a pot of tea. "I was the team tank, first one through, the one who cleared out the enemy. It's why while I did hold authority no one trusted me to lead. I don't blame them. I've always cared about the people I love more than the big picture. And how do you trust the person whose job it is to kill the enemy to remember ethics?" She snorted.

She touched the fluffy Captain America throw blanket. "You're one of the most morally sound people I've met. Do you know how many people your tranq gun has saved? And you used it when you were on your old team too didn't you?"

"Yeah, we used tranq rounds when we could." Daisy began to transfer tea leaves to a filter looking thing in the lid of the teapot. "Do you want biscuits with your tea?" 

JJ raised a brow at the use of English vernacular. "That sounds good." She paused as she realized the teapot was also Captain America themed. "You really like Captain America don’t you?"

"Eh he's ok, but he's Coulson's hero. And Coulson brings more memorabilia every time he visits. It’s his way to mother hen me for leaving the nest. Mind you it was his idea I join your team, but he's still got empty nest syndrome over it." She smiled and it was so soft and affectionate.

She slid onto a barstool, and pretended the stool’s legs didn't look suspiciously detachable. "This place is very you. I have to ask, what's with the bookshelf of partially full wine glasses?"

"Control training." Daisy's voice tightened.

JJ tilted her head up slightly in confusion. It could wait though. "Interesting, maybe you can show me sometime."

"You don't have to stay, you know? I'll be fine and you didn't sign up for the psychotic serial killer dad or the bioterrorist mom, who despite everything, I love." Daisy looked at her and it was clear she really wouldn't be upset, that she expected her to run even.

JJ frowned. "I'm not going anywhere, at least not over this. We still have a date at a fancy restaurant to figure out. And honestly your insistence that I’m going to break up with you over it, is more frustrating than the fact your biological parents are both in prison for life."

Daisy stared at her looking slightly baffled, and then awed. Then she was around the counter and kissing her desperately. 

She gasped into it as Daisy's arm around her waist yanked JJ into her arms. It was quickly almost bruising in intensity.

JJ fisted her hands in Daisy's hair. She stepped into her, herding her against the counter. It was a rush to have her pinned. Not that she paid much attention to anything besides the feel of Daisy against her. 

Her shirt was half shucked up, Daisy’s flannel outershirt had hit the floor, and JJ had just gotten Daisy onto the counter. She was sucking in air one minute and then pulling back sharply the next as the kettle went off. 

Daisy’s cheeks were hot as she reached over yanking the kettle off and turning off the burner. “Sorry.” 

JJ huffed, leaning her head against Daisy’s shoulder. “Not really feeling tea anymore.” 

“Uh so um…” Daisy cleared her throat. “Probably should mention I’m part alien before we go further?” 

She groaned straightening so she could look Daisy in the eye. “Nope.” JJ slapped a hand over Daisy’s mouth before she could say anything else insane. “I accept your life is insane. But right now I do not care about anything, except whether you want to continue this?” 

Daisy’s eyes were wide, pupils blown. But as she spoke, Daisy's mouth quirked up into a smirk against JJ’s palm. 

“So, yes or no?” JJ dropped her hand to Daisy’s thigh. 

Daisy smiled before pulling her back in. 

////

Garcia spun in her chair. “You’ve come to the domain of all things. Speak and be advised.” She looked at JJ’s slightly concerned expression. “You ok Sugar?” 

“Theoretically, could aliens be real?” JJ twitched slightly. 

She leaned back in her seat. “Oh honey. Take a seat and let’s have a conversation about the truth the government doesn’t want mankind to know.” 

“We're the government.” JJ huffed, her expression baffled, except for the slightest bit of doubt. 

Garcia giggled. “Not government, Government. There’s a difference. There’s even rumor of an entire organization that deals with them.” She reached out and pulled up her file off the desktop. 

“That’s…” JJ trailed off. 

Garcia sighed, oh to be so naive. “You just realized Daisy was part of it didn’t you?” 

“It?” JJ asked cautiously. 

She patted the empty chair. “SHIELD.” 

Garcia squealed in delight at the sight of the finished uniforms. “Oh Sugars you’re going to love this!” 

“Why am I suddenly deeply afraid?” Emily looked up from her current profile she was working on. 

Morgan leaned back against his desk, arms deliciously loose, framing his chest. “What’s in the box mama?” 

“Your new uniforms for paintball.” She clapped her hands. “Oh you are going to look delicious Hot Chocolate.” 

Daisy sniggered from where she was sitting, with her heels up on her desk. “I’ve got to get sexy bad boy points now that ya’ll know the dark secret parent backstory.” 

“Oh Terminator, you already were rocking the disenfranchised bad boy look.” Garcia tossed a skin-tight work out shirt to wear under the armor. It was red with black lines. Would look super hot. 

Daisy held it up. “Should I be concerned this is my exact size?” 

“Huh…” Emily caught her’s. “Wait, I don’t do the paintball craziness. I know I said I wanted in, but then you mentioned the special forces thing and I’m out.” 

Garcia tossed Morgan’s to him. “And where else are you going to find dozens of hot, eligible, former soldiers, who’ll probably be chill with the badass agent job?” 

Emily stared before letting out a disgusted groan. “I’m still not going on morning runs with you lunatics.” 

“And this weekend is the new tournament, Rossi and Boy Wonder are doing college recruitment so that means the rest of us are free to watch the badassery.” Garcia was going to take so many photos. “I got one for Hotch, think you can talk him into it?” 

Emily and Morgan looked at each other. “Maybe.” 

////

Daisy stared at the menu and felt like bluffing. “You know if this was a mission I’d confidently say something about my wine preference, dismiss the wine here and order a fancy sounding cocktail and one of the most expensive items on the menu and pretend like I knew what on earth it was. I have no idea what any of this is?” 

“You and me both.” JJ’s eyes trailed across the menu. “Except there’s no prices on the menu.” 

Daisy blinked and looked back at it. “Well that’s… how did you even find this place?” 

“It’s the nicest French restaurant in the city, I always wanted to come here. Thought it was romantic.” JJ lowered her menu. “We could get out of here, go find a place that lists the prices on the menu that we read the language for?” 

Daisy straightened in her seat. “No, let’s stay. I mean we’re already here. If we tip well I’m sure we can integrate our waiter.” 

“And be judged mercilessly?” But JJ had that pleased looking twinkle in her eye. 

She smiled, well so what if they ended up ordering snails by accident or something? JJ was happy, besides, maybe snail tasted good? “Eh, let them judge. If anyone says something I’ll ruin their credit score.” 

“You and Garcia worry me sometimes.” JJ laughed as she looked back down at the menu. “So what is Coq au Vin?” 

Daisy frowned. “Uh...I think Vin is wine? And I don’t think I should comment on what Coq is.” 

“You’re terrible.” JJ kicked Daisy in the shins. “Let’s start with wine.” 

Daisy looked at the wine menu...it looked like a novel.. “So uh… thoughts? Cause I got nothing.” 

Daisy’s lips twitched up, her eyes still closed. “Tickles.” 

“Hmmm.” JJ didn’t stop tracing her fingers along her stomach. “So...alien?” 

She cracked an eye open. “Now?” 

“I needed a day to decide on questions.” JJ poked at her side. 

“Ok!” Daisy laughed, her eyes closing again. “So what do you want to know?” 

JJ ran her thumb across the raised skin from when she’d been shot by Quinn. “So part alien?” 

“Failed attempt at creating sentient weapons for a galactic war over a thousand years ago. Human experimentation, it’s basically junk DNA in less than 1% of the population. But if exposed to a chemical called terrigen it forces your body to...well evolve. It activates that junk DNA.”

JJ hummed. “You look human enough.” 

“I didn't have an outward reaction to it.” She rolled, pinning JJ to the bed beneath her and nipped playfully at JJ’s fingers. “Want to see what I can do?” 

JJ groaned letting her head fall back. “Before I met you things like aliens weren’t real. I had to ask Garcia if aliens were even a thing.” 

“I know, surprisingly her file was pretty accurate when she ambushed me with it a few months ago. Though some of it was wild. Can I just say no tentacles.” Daisy grinned. 

With a groan JJ dropped an arm over her eyes. “Please say the whole Asgardian, New Mexico conspiracy theory was wrong?” 

“One of the right ones actually.” Daisy fell serious. “There’s paperwork you’re going to have to fill out for knowing the alien thing.” 

She let out a truly miserable groan. “Of course there is.” JJ let her arm fall back onto the pillow, her blue eyes looking up at Daisy. “So, what secret alien powers do you have? Because I know you don’t have a tail.” 

“No tail.” Daisy laughed, her eyes crinkling up around the sides. She reached out towards the bookshelf of champagne flutes. To be fair she had different types of glass covered shelves in every room for practice. But she liked the soft ringing of the flutes better in the morning. And sure enough, the flutes all began to ring at their specific frequencies. She smiled, these delicate type activities had taken weeks of practice. 

JJ made a sound of surprise. “How are you doing that?” 

“Vibrations, I control the vibrations between everything.” She grinned at her girlfriend. “You don’t want to know how long it took to be able to make glass vibrate at just the right frequency to make sound but not explode.”

JJ giggled. “That is such a better explanation for the endless tableware everywhere.” 

“What did you think they were?” She laughed rolling off of JJ and onto her side. 

JJ shoved at her shoulder with a laugh. “I don’t know, maybe you just had hideous decorating sense?”


	17. Chapter 17

Emily pulled on the terrifyingly perfect fit of a sports shirt. She looked at the lightweight body armor. “Why do we look like a lazer tag team when everyone else is in camo?” 

“Because Baby Girl likes a show.” Morgan tightened his belt, holding up the black combat pants he was wearing. “Don’t worry, we just provide covering fire, don’t get hit.” 

Daisy laughed as she pulled on the kneepads. “The course is covered in paint, our broken up color will blend better than their camo. It’s why the Rock Raider team in their paint splattered camo will be harder to spot.” 

She stared down at herself before sighing, and pulling on the chest armor. “We’re going to look ridiculous.” 

“Oh accept it already Prentis.” Morgan chucked sports tape at her. “It’ll be fun.” 

“If I have to do this, then so do you.” Hotch yanked his ridiculous plastic helmet over his head.

Emily sighed, Garcia played dirty using Jack to get Hotch to agree. It was evil, brilliant, but evil. She pulled on the gloves. “Why do we need protective equipment for this?” 

“Half cause it feels cool, half cause paintballs smart like hell,” Morgan replied. “And the soldiers go crazy with paintball firing clusters.” 

Emily grunted as she landed flat on her back after having to jump off a barrel. “Fuck.” She rolled over, paintballs flying with uncomfortable speeds over her head. Eyes narrowed behind her stupid plastic mask she crawled to the edge. Shifting she let her back thunk against the barrel. She had a few seconds before she needed to move… 

Why was she doing this? 

“Prentiss!” Hotch’s voice hissed at her. 

She nearly shot him in the face as she realized he was behind a road barrier, this ‘apocalypse’ themed field was the worst. “Hotch! You see a way out?” 

“No, stay down.” Hotch’s eyes were narrowed as he looked around them. “If Morgan or Daisy break up their defense of the fake fast food joint, we can make our way to the burned out car. It might still roll.” 

Emily couldn’t help it, she grinned. Looking to her left she saw the distance between them and the car. “That’s a long way to make it.” 

“We’ll have accomplished something other than running if we make it.” Hotch’s jaw clenched.

She chuckled giving an exhausted nod. “Alright, we’re to the edge of the course anyways.” Emily glanced fifteen feet in front of her where there were large sheets of plywood with ‘city apocalypse’ scene painted on. Of course it was riddled with brightly colored splashes of paint. 

Emily paused as there was a sudden explosion of paintball fire, and inarticulate cries of something along the lines of ‘God Fucking Damn It’ and ‘Come On!’ She didn’t pause for long. She and Hotch both scrambled to their feet and took off for the car, and possibly mobile cover.

She glanced over her shoulder and brought her gun up and fired a burst of hot pink paint. 

The army guy’s arms dropped. “Fuck.” 

Emily had a well of satisfaction as she kept sprinting. With a last burst she skidded behind the car with Hotch. She panted, her mouth unable to close from how much she needed oxygen. “Now what?” 

“We pry the door open, put it in neutral and push.” Hotch had gone all steely eyed, sweat streaming down his face. 

She was going to strong arm Garcia for photos later. Now she just blinked the sweat out of her own eyes since she couldn’t wipe without removing the mask. “Give me some covering fire while I get in.”

Surprisingly the door was only a little stuck, not that she was sure what they’d have done if it was actually stuck. It was awkward, staying as low as possible, but she got it into neutral before sliding out of the car. “We’re good.” 

Hotch dropped down behind the hood of the car he’d been shooting over. “I’m giving Morgan more paperwork for challenging two teams at once.” 

“I’ll help make his life hell.” Emily grunted while bracing herself against the door. 

He gave a sharp nod. “Now let’s get this twenty feet up so we can shoot into the three guys camped behind the dumpster.” 

“Let’s get them.” Emily hissed through her teeth as she braced herself against the door. Sure Morgan had challenged them, but god those assholes had been irritating. 

Emily stared at their team’s scoreboard. It was...well uh. “Pay up Morgan.” 

“How did you get six of them?” Morgan grunted, ignoring the baby blue paint splattered across his shoulder and the number two by his name on the board. 

She was positively smug. “You got cocky.” 

Hotch was ignoring them, just dumping his water bottle over his face. Besides he’d shot three of them before he’d gotten hit in the head with bright orange paint splattering through the air holes in his mask. His face still had a slight orangish tint. 

Daisy pulled off her mask, shaking out her hair. “Fun right Prentiss?” 

“Thirty? You took out thirty military paintball nuts.” Emily was still breathing too hard to cross her arms. “How?” 

“Didn’t you hear? I’m a badass.” She folded her hands behind her head. “But naw, you and Hotch with that car got all their attention on you. It’s like they forgot I was hunting them.” 

Morgan paused from where he was taking off his gear. “Did you just describe this as hunting them?” 

“Well what else is it?” Daisy huffed. 

The team captain from one of the two other teams they’d just fought cleared their throat. “So I believe my team bet yours $500 they’d crush you in ten minutes.” 

“That would be correct.” Emily looked at him curiously. “You’re not surprised you lost?” 

He snorted. “Please, my unit got pulled out by a crazy little asian specialist who blew up three tanks, and then proceeded to steal the insurgent’s own weapons and clear out five city blocks. Most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. Heard she got a fancy name on her next mission. The Calvary.” 

“Oh she hates that name.” Daisy winced as she stepped up besides Emily. “But that’s cool you met May, she was my SO.” 

The man rubbed at the back of his head. “Well fuck. We were doomed from the start then.” He laughed, rubbing at the neon blue paint Daisy used that was splattered across his cheek. “It’s an honor to meet one of you crazy mother fuckers again.” 

Daisy reached out shaking his hand. “Nice to meet anyone who knows May.” 

“Name’s Rick, and you two are?” Rick turned his attention to Emily. 

She raised a brow while accepting his hand. “Emily, and our secret weapon here is Daisy.” 

“Nice to meet you ma’am.” He held out a wad of crumpled tens and twenties. “We’re men of our words ladies.” 

Daisy actually laughed as she accepted the stack. “You boys weren’t half bad.” 

“I should hope not, we built a lot of the courses here.” He fell into a light parade rest. “So what do you think of our set up here?” 

Emily looked out at the courses. “It’s impressive, why paintball?” 

“It helps.” He smiled proudly. “Makes the transition easier if you don’t leave combat behind cold turkey, helps keep those of us going back over sharp, great training tool, and it’s just damn fun.” 

Emily huffed but nodded. “So you’re working with psychologists?” 

“VA, but yeah.” Rick grinned. “And you won’t find too many paintball courses where full contact is allowed. But if you don’t get to go all out, where's the fun?” 

So the paintball wasn’t too terrible. 

////

Morgan looked over at Daisy as the last of the kids were driven away from the crime scene. “So, paranoia and profiling apparently have a lot in common.” 

“If it’s ever easy it’s a trap.” Daisy shrugged. “Good thing Reid spotted it was a trap too.” 

He looked up at the house. “Think we’ll ever have a whole weekend without one of these scumbags popping up?” 

“They don’t end.” Daisy’s hands slid into the back pockets of her jeans. “You’d know why better, but the fights, they don’t end. And the best you can do is get up and do it all again the next day. It’s like manscaping, it’ll just grow back. Doesn’t make the smooth manscaped chest any less worth it. Or do you disagree, Mr Manscaper?” 

Morgan looked at her. “Ouch, that hurts.” He shook his head. “You’re comparing serial offenders to personal grooming?” 

“Am I wrong?” She challenged with a stupid cocky tilt of her head. 

He sighed. “No.” His eyes sharpened. “Concealer, it’s a thing.” 

“Fuck.” Her hand slapped over the side of her neck where there was a surprisingly dark bite mark. 

Morgan smirked, who knew JJ was a biter? Not that he could use that for ribbing the communications liaison for it. “Might want to cover that up before we get back to the precinct.” 

“You’re an ass.” Daisy frowned slightly. “This whole house should be bulldozed.” 

He eyed the house critically. “I don’t know, some work, the murder basement renovated and it’d be a nice family home.” 

Morgan looked at the new crime scene photos. “This one is not going to be good. There’s got to be more victims. His ritual is too perfect every time, no hesitation marks, no attempt at anything new. He’s comfortable.” 

“Why the cleaning stuff?” Daisy paused. “No it’s for the torture. He’s a watcher isn’t he?”

JJ spoke up. “I found two priors from a year before, only it was call girls. Same MO, gutted, bleach and ammonia under their nails, and the same household cleaners arranged the same way.” 

“It’s the same unsub.” Hotch agreed as the photos went up on the screen. 

Morgan shifted. “How’d he get the confidence to go from prostitutes to nightclubs?”

“We know he’s hunting in night clubs though?” Daisy looked around the plane. “You’re sure that’s how he’s going to hunt?” 

Morgan nodded. “Yeah, he’s hunting alpha females in a club setting now. It’s an ego boost.” 

“Well this is going to suck.” Daisy cracked her neck before setting her case file aside. “I can’t help much with this one, but I make excellent bait.” 

JJ stiffened. “What? I thought we weren’t doing that anymore.” 

“What are you thinking?” Hotch looked at Daisy. 

Daisy leaned back in her seat. “You guys investigate the case, I’ll troll the night clubs. Probably won’t get anything, but it’s better than sitting around and running security camera footage. I go in, and you can put a tracker and a wire on me if you want. Besides, he’s not drugging or blitzing them right? I’ll be fine.” 

“She’s got a point.” Morgan silently apologized to JJ, she was going to kill him. “It can’t hurt, and it looks like this guy is using charm and a knife to isolate and keep control. I don’t think that would get him anywhere with Daisy.” 

JJ spoke slowly, her voice carefully not overly invested. “I’m sorry, are we considering sending her in by herself as bait for a sadist who is making gutted women clean up their own crime scenes?” 

“I mean last person who stabbed me, I took the knife out and stabbed him with it.” Daisy looked around as if she hadn’t just said something horrific. “And Garret, may his ashes be shat out by weasels, was gutted on mission. He stuffed them back in and duct taped himself back together till he could get out of the combat area and get help. Evil Fucker was hard to kill.” 

Morgan opened and then closed his mouth. “Anyways, I think it’s a good use of manpower. At least for this one.” 

“Wire and gps tag.” Hotch said finally. “And you’re going to have a patrol car assigned to you as on scene back up.” 

Morgan couldn’t help it, he smirked. “So you can do alpha female?” 

“I’ve done chinese pop star, I can handle Queen Bitch.” Daisy made a disgusted expression. “God I hate heels.” 

Morgan wolf whistled as Daisy came out of lost and found done up for her cover. He could feel every cop in the bullpen screeching to a halt. She was wearing something that shone with reflecting light from the station. The v of the neck practically went to her waist, and the skirt barely covered her ass. “Well that’ll get people’s attention.” He frowned. “Is that a wig?” 

“The victims had long hair, and more blondes than brunettes.” Daisy’s heels clicked as she made her way over to him. “But I’ve got the wire on, gps in the bangles.” pulled out a compact mirror from her shiny looking clutch and checked her lipstick. “You know this reminds me of the time I went into a garden party in a pink sundress.” 

He laughed, though avoided slapping her on the back. “How many guns do you have on you?” 

“None.” She giggled. “Dude what took so long was covering up the scars. Fortunately most of them are central mass. But do you know how many glass windows I’ve jumped through?” 

Morgan chuckled. “Going to have one in the clutch then?” 

“In the words of a woman far more badass than I, ‘if I need a gun I’ll take one’.” She rolled her eyes as if it was that easy. 

He paused before nodding. “Ok, just stay safe ok?” 

“I’ll be fine.” Daisy looked positively smug as Reid came to a complete halt, having just then recognized her. She lolled her head back, not even flinching under JJ’s gaze. “Sup guys.”


	18. Chapter 18

Rossi chuckled as he saw JJ dropping off a stack of paperwork on Daisy’s desk. “Ah true love’s bite.” 

“JJ cares about privacy Dave,” Hotch chided from his desk. 

He turned away from the window looking out over the bullpen. “I know.” Rossi leaned against the wall. “Coulson’s good though. She didn’t get our unsub, but eight date rapists? She filtered through the non threats and accepted come ons from scum like a maestro.” 

“She did.” Hotch lowered his pen. “What are you saying?” 

Rossi’s mustache twitched. “We should use her more. I doubt she’d do well under cover for long, but as bait on some of these cases? The age range she can mimic alone is impressive.” 

“If we use the profile we won’t have to set traps.” Hotch straightened. “But on occasion, if it’s useful.” 

He accepted that. “No concerns about inter team romance?” 

“As long as it remains professional I see no reason to bring it up.” Hotch picked up his pen again, going back to his current file. 

Rossi gave a grunt of agreement. Personally he thought it was good for team morale. “Well if that’s all, I need more coffee.” 

He left Hotch to his work and Hotchniss. With that duty done for the day, well unless they had a case. As he was walking by the kids’s desks he deftly avoided a wadded up piece of paper being chucked at Morgan by an annoyed looking Ried. 

Pausing he did a double take. “Might want to cover up those scratch marks.” 

Daisy didn’t even bother adjusting her scoop neck sweater. “Badge of honor dude. Badge of honor.” 

“And here I thought kissing and telling was a no no.” He chuckled making his way to the kitchenette. 

Morgan made a snickering sound from his desk. 

Reid spoke up. “Leaving physical marks during coital relations is a marker of possession. You should be careful if there are also gifts of inappropriate financial value.” 

Emily, Morgan and Rossi all barely kept from snorting. 

Daisy folded her hands behind her head. “Or maybe I’m that good. Pro-tip, vibrations good.” 

“Don’t you mean vibrator?” Emily turned laugher in her voice, but slightest crinkle in her brow. 

Daisy looked far too smug for it to be allowed. “Sure, let’s go with that.” 

Rossi shook his head. “Oh to be young once more.” He picked up the coffee pot and refilled his mug. “Maybe it’ll be a slow day for once?” 

“Grab your go bags, we’ve got one,” JJ announced from the walkway before ducking into Hotch’s office. 

He groaned. “I jinxed us.” 

////

Morgan didn’t question when he spotted Daisy waiting for him in the driver’s seat of the SUV. “I can drive.” 

“I’m sure, and if we went with your ‘vibing it’ method you’d end up late. And being late to a funeral is rude.” She locked the doors, and then pulled out into traffic. 

He stared out the window at the traffic as they passed it. “Why you? Usually it’d be Rossi.” 

“Check the visor.” She didn’t look away from the road. 

Morgan frowned, before reaching up and pulling the envelope out from behind the visor. He turned it over his hands and pulled out the paperwork. “How did you afford this?” 

“Part of my work I do for the CIA still is defunding terrorists. As long as it’s draining out of the enemies accounts they don’t care too much where I’m diverting the funds.” Daisy’s whole posture and voice were blase.

His voice thickened. “Do you know what college funds for those kids will mean?” 

“It’ll mean they won’t end up fighting the fights we had growing up.” Daisy’s eyes flicked to him. 

Morgan breathed deeply. “Thank you. It’ll mean the world to them.” He fell silent after that. It was… refreshing not to be told he didn’t have to go to the funeral every time a cop died, leaving kids behind on one of their cases. But then Daisy was a foster kid, she’d get the solidarity between the abandoned. 

He paused as the SUV came to a halt. “You’re not coming?” 

“No.” Daisy looked at him seriously. “This is important that you do on your own. At least to you it is. I’ll be committing mass fraud against corrupt businessmen on my phone in the parking lot.” 

Morgan closed his eyes for a brief moment. “Thank you.” 

“Anytime.” She reached out grabbing the door handle. “Now shoo.” With a sharp move she shut the door leaving him on the sidewalk and pulling away. 

He shook his head as he put on sunglasses. Morgan slid the envelope into his pocket. It was time to pay his respects. 

////

JJ woke next to Daisy for the third time that week. It was becoming a habit, one she didn’t want to end. She looked at the woman besides her in bed. It was always beautiful to see Daisy still, the constant tension she carried gone. Her eyes followed the lines of her face. 

She didn’t know how long Daisy would continue to be so understanding about keeping their private life private. Well, at least leave her name out of it. The team had taken to ribbing Daisy about who she was seeing. JJ’s cheeks heated at that, it wasn’t her fault she kept leaving marks on Daisy. Who said vibrating girlfriends were real? Because it was unfair was what it was. She let her head drop onto the pillow, staring up at the ceiling. What was she going to do? This relationship was making her crazy. They’d been together less than two months and already she knew it was getting serious. 

“I can hear you thinking.” Daisy murmured sleepily.

JJ shifted, looking down at Daisy. “It’s nothing, go back to sleep.” 

“Uh huh.” Daisy’s eyes opened slowly, her head rolling on the pillow so she was looking at her with warm brown eyes. “Want to try that one again?” 

She pressed their foreheads together. “This is just very fast for me.” 

“Do you need to slow down?” Daisy’s voice lightened. “Cause I wasn’t the one pressing you into my front door.” 

JJ rolled her eyes, shoving Daisy’s playfully. “You can be such a guy.” 

“You’re hot, it brings it out of me.” Daisy’s face was still sleepy as she smiled fondly before pushing up, leaning her head against her arm. “But is there something you want to change about us?” 

JJ looked slightly up at her. “No. And that terrifies me.” 

“Then we don’t have to change anything.” Daisy dipped her head slightly and brushed her lips against hers softly. “I’m happy, I think you’re happy. It’s a good thing.” 

She reached up, curling her fingers in Daisy’s dark hair. “You don’t want to tell the team? Tell our families?” 

“Well…” Daisy bit her lower lip before laughing. “I’m pretty sure my family and the team know. The paperwork you had to fill out over the alien thing, would have been a pretty big clue to professional spies like my family.”

JJ blinked before burying her face in her pillow. “Of course your family knows.” 

“It’ll be fine. We’re spies.” Daisy tickled her side lightly. “It’s fine, no shovel talks in your future.” 

JJ batted away the now wandering fingers. “You’re sure you’re ok with this?”

“I’m happy like this JJ. Sure at some point our relationship will probably need to be properly filed with the Bureau. And I don’t know, if we end up adopting some kid in a few years or something it’d be a bit awkward if we hadn’t mentioned it to the team yet. But seriously I don’t mind keeping our personal life private.” Daisy grinned, pointing at herself with her thumbs. “And again, alien here. I’m good with secrets.” 

She huffed in amusement, softening against Daisy. “You promise?” The thing was, as much as she did love how they currently were, she was worrying about it. But maybe that wasn’t because Daisy was the one who was wanting to move so fast?

“We can take this at whatever pace you want. No pressure, like at all.” Daisy curled her arms around her. “Now, we can keep talking this to death, or we can try that thing with my tongue again?” 

And well, JJ was only human. 

JJ looked at her cellphone. “Babe, you’re going to want to bring a go bag with you. I think we’re going to be going straight to the plane.” 

“I’ll grab yours from the closet!” Daisy called from the kitchen. She popped her head into the bedroom before JJ could call the Orange County Sheriff back. “If we take my bike we’ll have time for breakfast before we leave.” 

She smiled at her girlfriend. “Sounds good.” 

////

Emily dropped her go bag on the plane, while raising her coffee to her mouth. “California again?” 

“Indeed.” Hotch replied as he dropped his own go bag onto an empty seat. 

She stretched before taking the seat by her go bag. “At least this call didn’t come in the middle of the night.” 

“Sup.” Daisy raised a hand in greeting as she made her way in, sunglasses covering her eyes, slightly hungover slump to her posture, and large thermos in hand. She dumped her bag in a seat and slumped in one herself. 

Emily grinned. “Long night?” 

“Longest.” Daisy pushed her sunglasses up, showing the slightest bags under her eyes. “You?”

“Good, would have been better if I had gotten to sleep in at all.” Emily tossed Daisy a granola bar. “Thanks for the paintball. Soldiers with good therapists are so hot.” 

Daisy smirked. “Told ya.” 

Emily sipped at her coffee. She paused when JJ stepped in, perfectly put together, not a single sign of hangover, and holding a to go cup of coffee. Huh, someone was a dirty rotten liar. “Just eyeliner today Daisy?” Damn, those dark circles were totally believable. Fucking spies. 

Daisy looked up and a spark of understanding in how she pushed her sunglasses back up. “Oh you know how it goes, not enough time. And so much effort.” 

She snorted softly while raising her coffee in salute of a job well done. 

Emily stopped as they made their way to the SUV. “Where’s Daisy?” 

“Fuck.” Morgan ripped the door open. “We’re hitting the gas!” 

She shared a wide eyed look with Reid as they jumped into the SUV. Emily grabbed the chicken handle and braced herself. 

Emily was out as soon as the SUV screeched to a stop. She could tell the race was over already. As she jogged to the unsub’s parked car, she relaxed at the sight of Daisy leaning against the unsub’s SUV. “What happened?” 

“SHE’S INSANE!” A cop yelled as he looked at them . “I...SHe….”

Daisy held up a hand in a slight wave. “His window was open so he could shoot at us.” She shrugged. “So I tranqed him and jumped through the window and drove the car to a halt so it didn’t crash and hurt anyone.” 

“He’s out?” Morgan demanded, the horror of the phone call they’d just gotten from Hotch still clinging to him. 

Daisy gave a sharp nod. “And in the back of the cruiser of the incoherent one.” 

Emily holstered her gun at that. “He killed his family. They were gone before we even got here.”

“The house?” Daisy asked. 

She gave a sharp nod. “JJ and Hotch found them.” 

“Bastard thought his family was in the car.” Daisy pushed off the car and walked across the road over to them. “Let’s get out of here. This state is like cursed this year or something.” 

Emily blew out a breath. “Yeah, let’s finish this up and go home.”


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!

Daisy sighed as she pulled her rain jacket closer and concentrated on the vibrations in the ground. She looked up the hill. “Go search over by those bushes.” 

“Uh sure?” One of the damp police officers with a rake trudged up the hill.

She caught the shoulder of another officer. “You’re going to want a go dig by that pine on the other side of the path.” 

“That’s not part of our search grid?” The cop looked confused. 

Daisy shoved her hands into her pockets. “I outrank you and I’m telling you to. Or should I ask not nicely?” 

“I’ll go do that then ma’am.” He shivered slightly and then was grabbing a rake and heading towards where she’d pointed them. 

She pulled out her cellphone while moving out of the way, the dump area wouldn’t tell her much, but it would Reid and Morgan. Daisy smiled as she heard the greeting on the other side of the line. “JJ, we’re going to be back in an hour or so. They’re about to find two more victims.” 

-”Do I want to know how you know they’re going to find bodies?”- It was JJ’s voice she’d developed just for reality breaking information. 

She smiled. “I’ve been taking lessons from Toph. If I can feel vibrations, I can feel what is vibrating as well. I can feel the bones. So I told them where to dig.” 

-”That’s going to bring up questions, ones you can’t answer.”- JJ cautioned. 

Daisy looked at the woods around her, the quiet of the sopping wet body dump. It felt right oddly enough that this depressing case was her last one before things changed. “You know that mission I told you I was leaving for in two days? Once it’s done a whole lot of stuff won’t be classified anymore. Just a whole mess of things most people aren’t ready for.” 

-”You mean the ET problem?”-

She felt like laughing at that. “Yeah, that’s not classified anymore after this case. Frankly it doesn’t matter if it gets out now. The reason it was classified is already accomplished.” 

-”So you’re not going to tell Garcia her file on ET is over 90% correct.”- JJ’s end muffled for a moment. -”Daisy, what’s the chance that the psychic on this case is for real?”-

Daisy paused. “Not good. I’ve met two individuals with actual cognition abilities like that. One was an autistic little girl who drew the future and the other was her father. And his was far more limited. But the ET problem…” She tapped her foot. “Do you buy it?” 

-”A little bit, yeah. The missing girl’s mom really does.”- JJ replied. 

She nodded. “If he is an Inhuman, some of his power might be manifesting pre terrigen. Lincoln used to joke he always was cursed with static shock. Joey always didn’t trust metal as much as most. It’s not… sometimes parts of us are just a few thousand years from being something tangible.” Daisy let her head fall back, feeling the rain on her skin. “Bring him into the station. When we get back we’ll see if he’s for real or a grifter.”

JJ sighed over the line. -”Thank you. I don’t want to take away this woman’s hope if it might not be false hope.”-

“Then we’ll be sure.” Daisy rolled her shoulders forward. “I’ll stop by the jet and grab some things.” 

-”Might take till tomorrow to bring him in, it’s getting late.”- JJ admitted. 

She bit her lip. “Sneak into your hotel room later tonight then?” 

-”I’ll pick up dinner.”- JJ’s voice lightened and regained that familiar warmth.

Daisy smiled. “Sounds good.”

Daisy paused as the detective stepped in front of her. “Did you need something?” 

“Look, he hasn’t committed a crime.” The detective’s crushed spirit was practically palpable. 

She could feel the team’s eyes on her. “I didn’t say he had. But he’s wasting valuable time and resources. Give me five minutes and we’ll know whether to listen to him or not.” Daisy looked at the man, christ did they have a dementor in Washington or something? “Look Detective… what’s your name again?” 

“Detective Fullwood.” He dropped his hands to his hips. “Look, he can’t hurt.” 

Daisy couldn’t help it, she scoffed. “Fullwood? Like you live in the Evergreen state and your name is Fullwood and just...wow take your wife’s name when you marry dude. That is like hella unfortunate for you. Middle school had to have been a bitch.” 

“Excuse me?” He rocked forward, face twisting with affront. 

She shook her head slightly. “Look, Detective Fullwood, this is taking away from the case. Agent Rossi is frothing at the mouth to kick this guy out of the investigation, and you all are listening to him. So you can watch as I handle it, or you can sit at your desk and wait five minutes. Your choice.” 

Daisy stepped around the man spluttering as she made her way to the interrogation room. She saw JJ, Hotch and Rossi already on the other side of the glass. No doubt Morgan and Emily were going to join them. Daisy opened the door and stepped into the interrogation room. “Sorry for the wait.” 

“I haven’t done anything wrong.” Stanley Usher and apparent psychic said as he focused on her. 

She set the briefcase she was carrying with her on the metal table and sat down. “I’m here because you’re either an asset to this case or a hindrance. My job is to see which you are.” 

“You can’t quantify what I can do with science.” He folded his hands on the table in front of him. “It’s spirit.” 

Daisy chuckled. “That’s where you’re wrong, it’s science, just science so advanced most people mistake it for magic. So the first question, are you worth my time?” She set her Hawaii Hula girl on the table in front of him. “Tell me what that gives you.” 

Stanley slowly picked up. He breathed out, eyes closing. It took a minute but he finally spoke. “A van, a plane, a kitchen. I don’t know how you expect to prove or disprove anything from that.” 

“I wouldn’t say that. You just told me either you’re for real, or you got information out of one of five people on this planet.” She carefully plucked her Hula gil from his hands and slipped it back into her coat. “So let’s rule some options out shall we.” 

He tilted his head to the side slightly. “You believe me?” 

“Yup.” Daisy held out her hand. “Hand.” 

Stanley slowly reached out, giving her his rough and worn hand. 

“This might sting.” She stabbed his thumb with a needle. And hung on when he jerked his hand back. “So you’re blood’s red, and breakable by a needle. Which means not Asgardian or 92% of alien life.” Daisy released his hand and pulled out the teragen crystal from the case and shut it. “You have a choice to make now.” 

Stanley held his hand against his chest. “What are you talking about?!” 

“There are two types of humans who have abilities not seen in the rest of the human population. And I’ve seen the background report Rossi had run on you. No human experimentation, radioactive vats with 99.9999% death rates, no alien weapons of mass destruction, which means your ability isn’t a gift. It’s part of you. So how badly do you want to help Brooke?” 

He frowned. “Is this a trick? Of course I want to help her. Anything.” 

“Then congrats.” She dropped the crystal watching the mist fill the interrogation room. Daisy’s eyes caught the cocoon starting to cling to him. “Welcome to the future.” 

Stanley startled to his feet. “What?” He started to struggle as the rock began to cover him. 

“It’s ok, it won’t hurt you.” Daisy held her hands out, and caught his hand. “You’re safe.” 

His eyes widened as he held her hand. And then he was completely covered. 

Daisy dropped her hand. She looked at the one way glass. “He’s alive, scared, but alive.” She pulled out the necklace they’d gotten back from the family from the briefcase and set it on the table. She turned to the cocoon. Someone was trying to rip the door off its hinges, they wouldn’t be able to, her vibrations were bracing it. Who knew what boredom could do for developing skills. 

“Stanley.” Daisy spoke slowly. “I know you can hear me. You're going through something called terrigenesis. It’s going through like a million years of evolution in a few minutes. Believe me the hangover is going to suck. But you’re going to be able to help Brooke. And I promise, I’ll make sure you stay safe. Cause there’s a whole bunch of shit that believe me you are not ready for. No one ever is. But I’ve been in there, and I’ve helped other people who’ve been through it. I just need you to focus on your heart beat ok?” 

She waited, and then there was a crack in the shell. Daisy smiled, huh so he was a fast hatcher then. Picking up the pieces of the crystal she swept the dust off the table and into the briefcase. Sure it was a bit dramatic, but well tomorrow was going to suck for the team anyways. Might as well give them a head start on processing. “Stanley? Mr Usher?” 

A chunk fell off his face, he was gasping, eyes wide. “I can’t get out.” 

“I know, let it break naturally. Just breathe, you’re doing good.” Daisy picked up the necklace. “I think I know what your powers are going to be. And it’s going to be really overwhelming once that happens. So I need you to listen to me ok?” 

He strained as if to nod and then spoke. “Ok, yeah.” 

“It’s going to take a while for your powers to develop too strongly. That’s going to help you. But you should not touch me. Or anything of mine, National Security, but also I’ve been shot, stabbed, tortured, drugged, like a bunch of bullshit, like if you live the events of people if you touch them like that would be super traumatic. So don’t do that.” 

Stanley managed to nod as some more of his cocoon cracked. “Ok.” 

“Now, the first thing you’re going to want to touch is that necklace, I’m going to put it in your hand. Cause you’re not going to be able to control this thing for a while, but we need to know where Brooke is now.” 

He swallowed. “I can do that.” 

“Good. Once you tell me where Brooke is, those people on the other side of that glass are going to go get her. And I’m going to stay here with you. A team of baby agents with far less trauma for you to accidentally pick up will be here in about an hour. They’re going to take you to a castle in Scotland actually. The two top specialists on people like us are there, and other people like us. You’ll be safe, learn to control and even use your gifts if you want.” 

Stanley chuckled hoarsely. “Sounds pretty insane, but I’m in a rock.” 

“Yeah, believe me, I get it. There’s a welcome video you can watch on the jet to the new Afterlife.” Daisy picked up the necklace by the chain and held it above his hand as the stone cracked and fell off his hand. “Ready?” 

“If it gets that girl home,” Stanley said. 

Daisy dropped it into his hand.

Daisy could feel how the team was looking at her. They’d herded her into a tiny office at the station as soon as they got back with Brooke and the unsub. She turned, refusing to focus on the understanding look on JJ’s face. “So, I can’t answer everything till I get back from the mission I’m leaving for as soon as we land. But I’ll answer what I can.” 

Morgan’s head shifted to one side. “I gotta say it, aliens? Like ET phone home, aliens? I mean I was figuring super soldier serum though so like… not sure if this is better or worse than that.” 

“Yeah, haven’t met any that look like ET. The blue ones are assholes though. Also the ones’ I’m related to so...ya know.” She shrugged, but it was stiff. 

Emily cleared her throat. “So we should have been calling you ET not Terminator? Cause I liked Terminator but if you want us to switch it up we can do that. Is there alien human hybrid stuff we should know? Like food allergies to look out for on missions?” 

“You guys…” Daisy felt her eyes tearing up. “No gonna go running to the hills about having an Inhuman on the team?” 

Rossi slapped her shoulder. “Naw kiddo, though does this mean some of those other psychics might be the real deal?” 

She laughed, eyes definitely wet. “No, less than 1% of the population has the Inhuman gene. If JJ hadn't thought he might be legit I’d have ignored him.” 

“Huh, at least I’m not completely wrong then.” Rossi sighed. “I’m guessing your mission has to do with letting the world know aliens are real then?” 

Daisy cocked a brow. “Something like that, I asked an old teammate of mine to keep an eye on you guys while I’m gone. You’re not exactly used to dealing with the weird world.” She grinned, but it felt...she wanted to beam. Her team wasn’t freaking out. They looked like they were going to integrate her the entire ride home on the plane. But they weren’t scared of her. And JJ? JJ was standing next to her, not seeming to realize she was just a hair too close. It was...well way better than the last time her team found out. 

There was a knock on the door. The whole team turned in confusion. 

“Yes?” Hotch opened the door sharply. 

Detective Fullwood was slightly curled in. “There’s a giant black guy asking for a Daisy Coulson? And uh...he’s like...really big and the little CIA agents who are slapping classified all over my favorite interrogation room got all wide eyed. So…” 

Daisy perked up, a grin pulling up her face. “Does he have a shotgun axe?”

Morgan and Emily exchanged a look while mouthing the word ‘shotgun axe’ at each other, in clear confusion.

“Is that what that thing is?” Fullwood blinked, making a ‘huh’ face. “Yeah, is he like another alien or something? Cause he’s huge.” 

She laughed. “No he’s human.” Daisy slid past the team towards the door. “That’s Mack.” 

“Your partner before he got promoted up?” JJ asked curiously. 

Daisy grinned. “Yep, and he owes me one.” She jogged into the main bullpen of the police office and then half tackled him. “MACK!” 

“Daisy.” He hugged her back tightly before setting her back on the ground. His familiar gruff voice comforting, but oddly not as comforting as she’d expected. “I got your call. You woke up an inhuman in the middle of a police station?” 

“It saved a life, and BTW he’s supes powerful.” She grinned. “What are you doing here early? I wasn’t expecting you till we got back to Quantico tonight?” 

Mack grumbled slightly. “Change of plans, Fury wants you to pick up Banner.” 

“Haven’t been to South America since the nuke. Sounds fun.” Daisy turned to her team. “Guys, this is Mack. He’s gonna make sure you don’t get pulled into the shitshow that’s coming cause I’m on your team.” 

Mack sighed. “I’m retired, I’m just here cause somebody took that paranoia thing a bit far.” 

“Not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.” Daisy sniped back, before stepping back into her team’s space. “And I’m trusting you take care of them. They’re my team.” 

He gave a nod as he took in the FBI team. “I gotcha. At least you aren’t telling people I’m a teddy bear anymore.” 

“Has she always been this irreverent?” Hotch asked as he stepped ever so slightly so that Daisy was surrounded by their team. He didn’t cut her off from Mack, but he stood at her shoulder. 

Mack chuckled. “Afraid that’s just how Tremors here is.” 

“Tremors?” Emily nudged Daisy with her elbow. “You got a thing for nicknames starting with ‘T’?” 

Daisy couldn’t help beaming as Morgan slapped her shoulder and spoke in a low voice. “So badass brothers as your dainty backup a thing for ya?” 

She turned, taking a step back from the team, with a smile firmly on her face as she walked backwards towards the exit. There was a schedule after all. “Naw, the nicknames just happen, kinda like Terminator more than some of my others. And Morgan, look on the bright side, you are great at covering fire on the paintball courses.”


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are. Thank you for all the kind comments and surprising love for this one. I wasn't expecting much of anyone to be interested in this, so it's been a really pleasant surprise for you all to have enjoyed it so much. And yes you all have convinced me to write a sequel, I've sketched out a rough outline for one. I'm going to finish Happy Accidents before I start working on it actively, but it's actually something I'm working on. So think three to four months before I consider posting said sequel, but I'll get there. You guys are the best, legit.

JJ had barely slept, it had been hard not knowing what Daisy was doing but knowing it was alien big. Because that was her life now. By four in the morning she threw her blankets to the side in frustration and got ready for work. So what if they had Daisy’s old field partner watching over them for a couple days? She still had to do her job. 

She paused as he went to make coffee. Instead she opened the cupboard and pulled out the tea Daisy kept up there. Black tea with milk was the least objectionable one Daisy had made her try, and it felt like the day for it. 

JJ stared at the tv screen. “Is that…. a wormhole above New York?” Her voice felt like it was coming from miles away. 

“That’s not possible. A wormhole that size would swallow the earth from the gravitational pull.” Reid replied. “Realistically most likely a powered rip in the fabric of space. But the technology for that is…” 

Morgan looked over where Mack wasn’t paying much attention to the news. “Come on! That’s insane! I don’t care how powerful she is, she can’t take a whole army of aliens!”

“Yeah she can.” Mack looked up from his burger. “Look I’ve seen that girl contain a nuclear explosion with her bare hands. She’s the most powerful Inhuman, ever. And Inhumans aren’t cute cuddly toys. They’re weapons of mass destruction. And Daisy, well she’s got this.” He chuckled. “Sides, there’s a team going in with her to take care of it.” 

JJ turned, her nails biting into her palms. “She’s just one person! It only takes one bullet.” 

“Agent…” Mack sighed. “I don’t think you understand how terrifying Tremors is. If someone fucked up and gave her enough energy drinks she could crack the planet like an egg. Her call sign was Quake, but mostly people called her Destroyer of Worlds.” 

Reid spluttered. “That's mathematically impossible! I mean you couldn’t crack a planet like an egg even if you used every single nuclear weapon on the planet. The current binding energy of the earth is 2,24 x 10^32 joules. All of the nuclear bombs on earth only have a force of 2.67 x 10^19 joules. It’s actually impossible to build the one quadrillion nuclear bombs needed to crack a planet!” 

“Yeah, the world is way freaker than you know.” Mack took a large bite. “You should check those unclassified files. Like just how Daisy ended up on your team is uh...it was a ride.” 

Hotch frowned. “She made too big of a scene on a mission. The rest was psychological recommendation.” 

“Yeah, not how she got on that mission. How we ended up in this moment in time. Cause this is the second time I’ve seen the Battle of New York.” Mack got up. “I’m gonna go order some more food. We’re gonna be here for a while.” 

JJ grabbed Emily’s hand as a giant alien creature came out of the sky. Why was she so worried about this ridiculous alien stuff, and whether their relationship was going to last? Why? None of it mattered. So what if apparently time travel was a thing, at this point she’d believe anything. But none of it was the point. The point was she saw a single individual standing on a skyscraper that the camera person had just picked up and she knew what Daisy looked like.

////

Daisy bent her neck back as she saw the Chitari coming down out of the sky. Well, time to go big. Pulling out a syringe of pure adrenaline she stabbed it into her neck. “It’s been too long since I got a chance to really break loose.” 

“I’ve got your back.” May hefted up her rocket launcher. “Rodgers and the Avengers have Loki and any who get past you. Just keep the numbers through manageable.” 

She breathed out, and then raised her arms towards the sky. And the army coming through started to disintegrate. Her mind went blank, there was nothing but manipulating and channeling vibrations. She couldn’t be sure how long she stood there, channeling destruction.

Her breath was knocked from her as a chitauri speeder hit her, sending her and itself flying off the top of the skyscraper. 

Grabbing onto it she sent a burst of vibrations destroying the engine. And then she was flipping in mid air as she fell. Her hands dropping towards the ground as she started to cushion her hurtling descent. 

There was a flash of red and gold, and then she had a hand holding the back of her suit. “No falling to your death.” 

She grinned at Iron Man. “Toss me onto the top of the next skyscraper Sparkle Pants.” 

“Oh I like you McShake.” He quipped back before launching her towards the helipad on top of the New York Times building. 

She rolled, snarking into her comm. “Way to throw me to the vultures.” She yanked out a handgun and started clearing the roof. A blast of vibrations sent six chitauri flying off the roof to hopefully their deaths. Spinning over the back of another shot three in the face. Holding her arm up she vibrated the ship coming through the opening. No full ships coming through to kill tens of thousands of civilians. 

Daisy grunted as a chitari slammed a staff into her face. Spitting blood out she spun, kicking it in the head so hard it’s neck cracked. She huffed as part of the roof exploded from an arrow hitting the fuel tank of a chitauri speeder. 

She grabbed a chitari spear...gun thing and shot the last of the stupid aliens off the roof. “Good shot.” 

Daisy ached everywhere as she stuffed her face with shawarma. She looked up at Steve. “So I’ve got some merch of yours if you could sign it.” 

“Is Coulson contagious?” Steve asked with some disbelief, he was mostly too exhausted to actually put much emotion into it. 

She huffed. “You’re a national treasure Rodgers, at least your ass is.” 

Natasha held up a hand and high fived her. She spoke up. “Quake here is Coulson’s daughter from the future.” 

“Huh…” Steve’s cheeks were slightly pinked but he nodded. “I’ll sign the trading cards.” 

Tony spoke up. “Phil has a kid?” 

“Will have.” Natasha pulled out her cellphone that was somehow not cracked. “Pepper says we can crash in her 12% of the tower.” 

Banner and Thor grunted. Thor looked up. “Quake, daughter of Phil son of Coul, if I could speak with you of the Kree in the morning, I would be honored.” 

“Can’t.” Daisy stood slowly, and god she hurt. “I've got a team to get back to. It’s my home. You can come get a burger with me sometime and we can talk Thor.” 

He gave a slight dip of his head. 

The Avengers were awesome, everything Daisy had ever imagined and hoped they be. But she didn’t want to stay with her heroes from when she’d been a seventeen year old. She wanted to go home, and huh. This FBI thing wasn’t dumb, she wanted back with her team. 

////

JJ wasn’t sure how long they’d been watching the news. Every time new footage came up with Daisy in it her heart felt stuck in her throat. She wasn’t in her usual mix of leather, jeans and business casual. Instead Daisy was in a black skin tight field suit, with yellow seams, a black eye mask, and metal gauntlets. It was different. She might actually have enough brainpower to find it hot if she wasn’t too busy watching a god forsaken alien invasion. 

The rest of the team had lost their minds as a group when Captian fucking America showed up, or the God of Thunder, Garcia had said something when she spotted Iron Man. It was all chaos, the world changing before their eyes and all JJ wanted was for it to be over and her girlfriend back.

“I get why the unsubs never scared her.” Morgan uttered from the chair he was in. 

Emily carefully pushed coffee around the conference table. “Are they showing the green one punching that one ship that got through in the face again?” 

“The green one is Hulk.” Garcia corrected, surprisingly the bubbliness had been subdued all day. “Have they posted about what happened in the subways?” 

Rossi cleared his throat. “They’re fine, nothing collapsed. Dai-Quake was channeling the shock from everything back into the bug looking ones.” He grunted. “Why? Do they all have to have names?” 

“Just be glad our girl is wearing a mask.” Morgan picked up his fresh cup of coffee, and quietly toasted Emily. “You’d think she’d have called by now. The fighting and the blue hole..thing ended three hours ago.”

Hotch spoke up. “We don’t know what everything on the ground is like. And she’d have verbal reports to give.” 

They all fell silent, just watching more cellphone footage, and listening to more commentary. It was surreal. They hadn’t left the conference room all day. If a case had come in someone would have had to have held JJ back from the unsub.

JJ felt the faintest prickle along the back of her neck. She spun around and something unknitted in her chest. “Daisy.” 

Daisy held up a hand, her gauntlets still on, cement dust lightly coating her, a hint of dried blood showing her nose had been bleeding, her lip was split, and she was radiant just bashfully smiling from the doorway. 

She didn’t care that her team was there. JJ was out of her chair and slamming into Daisy, hugging her tightly. “You’re alive.” 

“I’m safe.” Daisy hugged her back. “I promise I’m ok.” 

JJ pulled her head back slightly and cradled Daisy’s head between her hands. “You are an adrenaline junky and for some reason I love you.” She saw the widening of Daisy’s eyes, the soft awe. And well, she was human. JJ pressed their lips together and drank in having her girlfriend back and safe and in her arms. 

Morgan wolf whistled, warm laughter filling the conference room.

Their mouths separated, but JJ kept her forehead pressed against Daisy’s. “I’m glad you’re back.” 

“Only stopped to stuff my face with shawarma before coming back.” Daisy giggled slightly.

JJ finally stepped back, and smiled as she saw Emily and Garcia colliding into Daisy with hugs of their own. And Morgan was slapping her on the back.

Garica poked at the gauntlets. “These are badass Terminator.” 

“Well done.” Hotch gave Daisy the shoulder touch. 

Emily hipchecked JJ. “So making it official, official?” 

“Well apparently I’m dating a superhero.” JJ’s shoulders were finally relaxed, because their team was together, their family complete. She smiled. “And I’m sure.” 

Emily gave her a look of understanding. “I’m happy for both of you.” 

“Who wants to go to a bar? I could use a drink after today.” Morgan slung an arm around Daisy’s shoulders. 

“Yes Sugar.” Garcia groaned in relief. 

Reid smiled, his hands twitching slightly as he grabbed his messenger bag. “There’s a new place down the road, the reviews have been unusually high.” 

“Aliens are real and I need a scotch.” Rossi grabbed his blazer. 

JJ didn’t startle at the warm hand on her back. She just looked at Hotch. “I’ll have the paperwork on your desk by the end of the day tomorrow.” 

“It can wait, I’m happy for you JJ, really.” His eyes were surprisingly warm. 

JJ stepped forward, taking Daisy’s hand as they trooped for the bar, and their team was whole.


End file.
